Rahul, C’garh CM battle it out over graft charges, devpt

THE CONGRESS CHIEF FURTHER CHARGED THAT ~36,000 CRORE WAS STOLEN IN THE ALLEGED PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM SCAM

Raipur:congress chief Rahul Gandhi and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh were locked in a war of words over corruption charges on the last day of campaigning for the first phase of polls in the state, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to secure a fourth straight term.

Speaking in Kanker, Gandhi targeted the CM on corruption and said ~5,000 crore had vanished in an alleged chit fund scam. “Sixty people died, 310 FIRS were registered, but nobody went to jail because the chief minster did not want action to be taken,” he alleged.

The Congress chief further charged that ~36,000 crore were stolen in the alleged public distribution system scam and claimed there were documents to prove Singh’s involvement in it. He also reiterated his allegation that Singh’s son and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Singh’s name had appeared in the Panama papers.

Hitting back in an interview to PTI, Singh said Gandhi did not know anything about Chhattisgarh and that his rallies would not help the Congress draw any significant votes. He also said Gandhi’s presence would not dent the BJP’S poll prospects but might prove detrimental to his own party.

Singh, who claimed that Chhattisgarh has become a developed state in 15-year BJP’S rule, termed Ajit Jogi and BSP alliance as “selfish coalition” that will impact the Congress more than the BJP. “Rahul does not know anything about Chhattisgarh. The people of Chhattisgarh do not take him seriously. He is an entertainment for them,” he said.

Gandhi claimed that in the 15 years since Singh had been in power, four million young people had remained unemployed, there was no irrigation on 65% land and 56,000 acres land was snatched from tribal people. “Once the Congress comes to power, every family that does not own land will be given land,” Gandhi added.

Singh rebuffed this claim and said Chhattisgarh has developed on all fronts. “Chhattisgarh used to be a backward stage. In 15-year BJP rule, it has become one of the developed states. We are growing at a great pace and will soon be among top five developed states of India,” he said.

The 90-member assembly will go to the polls in two phases — on November 12 and November 20 — and the results will be announced on December 11. The BJP had won 49 seats, Congress 39 and the Bahujan Samaj Party and independent one each in the last assembly polls in 2013. LUCKNOW:THE split in the Samajwadi Party (SP) seems final. Despite Mulayam Singh Yadav’s political ambivalence, a majority now believe that a patch-up is impossible between the warring factions in the SP.

A senior party leader said, “The tussle started over the issue of party leadership that Mulayam had settled in his son’s favour in 2012 though his brother (Shivpal Yadav), too, was a claimant. Much water has flowed down the Gomti since then. How can there be any patch-up now?”

Apparently, Mulayam tried to avert a split, but eventually failed. It was soon after the SP lost power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 that Shivpal revealed his plans to form a morcha from which Mulayam had distanced