Mumbai, April 6 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress has slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the latter’s ex-MP made certain revealing claims on how the Opposition parties’ leaders were allegedly targeted in corruption cases, here on Saturday.

State Congress President Nana F. Patole said the BJP has plummeted to very low levels by plotting to ‘eliminate the Opposition with murderous and insidious politics’.

The party General Secretary Sachin Sawant also attacked the BJP leaders for misusing the government machinery to harass and trap Opposition leaders.

The trigger was a former Mumbai MP Kirit Somaiya’s utterances to a private television channel in which he claimed that he was assigned the task of targeting opposition leaders like the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Thackerays or Nationalist Congress Party’s Hasan Mushrif and others.

Patole referred to Somaiya who hurled the allegations of corruption against various leaders with BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and took action with the help of central probe agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or Income Tax Department (ITD).

“Tired of such harassment tactics and blackmail, many chose to join the BJP. Then all the alleged corruption was washed away and they were rewarded with constitutional posts and respect. The real face of Fadnavis has been revealed before the people now,” said Patole.

He said that it is evident from Somaiya’s statements that a systematic racket was being run by the BJP leaders like Fadnavis and even the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray’s family members were made targets.

Among other things, Somaiya claimed that he was given the go-ahead by Fadnavis for such cases against the Opposition, how the BJP had no base in Maharashtra before 2014, and the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party could have targeted them (BJP) and put their leaders in jail, admitted that he completed the ‘tasks’ as a loyal party soldier, the opposition leaders were then taken on their side, and said though he was not agreeable to it, “it was all a political compromise” in the interests of development without graft.

Sawant referred to a recent statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi denying the Opposition’s allegations on misuse of central investigating agencies, and “we neither obstruct nor direct ED,” and said that Somaiya’s claims “have directly proved even the PM false.”

“Somaiya has contended that all action taken against the MVA leaders was intended to crush them with the help of ED, CBI, and to blackmail the opposition parties… Somaiya has directly attacked the PM with this. The BJP’s blackmailing strategy has been laid bare, with the electoral bonds matter, ‘chanda do aur dhanda do’ and other issues,” said Sawant.

Patole said that the Congress has consistently raised its voice on these unethical and immoral style of BJP politics of coercion with the misuse of government agencies, and now Somaiya has revealed how his own party conspired to defame the opposition to paint them ‘corrupt’.

The duo warned that the people of the country have become aware of all these dirty tactics and “will make the BJP sit at home after the elections.”

However, the SS (UBT) and NCP (SP) – which suffered vertical splits in June 2022 and July 2023, respectively, have not yet reacted to Somaiya’s shocking claims though he had taken aim at several of their big leaders, many of whom are now cosy in the BJP.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)