By IANS,
Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh): Bhartiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari Thursday shied away from commenting on the induction of scam-tainted former Uttar Pradesh minister Babu Singh Kushwaha into the party.
Gadkari, who was here to address an election rally in the heart of the Bundelkhand region here, not only shunned even a passing reference to Kushwaha, who until Wednesday was described by party leaders as a “prominent OBC (Other backward class) leader from Bundelkhand,” but also parried queries by media persons on the issue.
Instead, he trained his guns on Chief Minister Mayawati as well as her close confidante Satish Misra, whom he accused of “money laundering through 300 sham companies floated by him in collusion with the UP chief minister”.
“I have reason to believe that together they have swindled Rs.10,000 crores, which needs to be probed by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). I challenge Mayawati to file a defamation case against me if she can prove me wrong,” he said.
Gadkari was also highly critical of the Congress leadership, charging it with only lip service to the cause of development.
“Sixty years of Congress rule in country with repeated promises of ‘garibi hatao’ have not led us anywhere; neither could they remove the poverty of Hindus nor that of Muslims,” Gadkari said.
He blamed both the Congress as well as Mayawati for not caring to do anything to address the plight of the people of poverty-ridden Bundelkhand.
Gadkari maintained a studied silence when a journalist sought to know the party’s objective behind ushering in Kushwaha, who was facing serious charges of corruption in the Rs.8,000-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam being investigated by the CBI.
On Wednesday, CBI carried out 60 simultaneous raids at various premises owned or hired by Kushwaha and his close associates across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, in search of clues relating to alleged large scale bungling in procurement of equipment, drugs and even hiring of manpower under various heads of NRHM.