KodA WIFE MAY gET LoK sABHA TIcKET FRoM coNgREss
Geeta Koda is an Independent MLA from Jagannathpur in Jharkhand.
Geeta Koda, wife of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who is involved in the Rs 4,000 crore mining scam, is likely to get a Congress ticket to contest from the Chaibasa Lok Sabha constituency in the state.
According to sources, the Jharkhand unit of the Congress has recommended her name for the constituency. At present, the seat is represented by Madhu Koda, who won the election as an Independent in 2009. Geeta Koda is an Independent MLA from Jag- annathpur Assembly constituency, within Chaibasa. She has already applied for a membership of the Congress. She was to be formally inducted in the party last month, but the process was deferred. The deal was reached following Madhu Koda’s meeting with senior Congress leaders in Delhi, including Ahmed Patel. The Koda government was supported by the Congress.
The move comes following the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) closing one of the cases against Koda, pertaining to irregularities in awarding Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana ( RGGVY), contracts worth Rs 400 crore, during his tenure from September 2006 to August 2008. BJP leaders allege that the CBI is going slow on Madhu Koda because of political reasons. The CBI had lodged an FIR against the former CM in October 2011 to investigate alleged irregularities in the awarding of contracts related to the scheme. However, according to a CBI official, the allegations could not be substantiated in the course of the investigation and therefore the agency filed a closure report in the Jharkhand High Court some time back. Another former Chief Minister, Arjun Munda had recommended an investigation into the matter. There were allegations that a private company was awarded the contract for electrification work in 2008. It was alleged that Koda’s close aide Binod Sinha played a key role in awarding the contract.
Though Congress leaders do not want Madhu Koda to join the party, they say that they do not have any problems with his wife joining it. “She is not facing any corruption charges. Moreover, she has been quite vocal about different issues in the Assembly,” said a Congress leader.
Congress has been quite “generous” with the Koda couple.
Geeta Koda has been made chairperson of the Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority by the Hemant Soren-led coalition government of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ( JMM), Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
“I am thoroughly dissatisfied with the pace of CBI investigation into the mining scam and also the way the agency investigated the rural electrification scam. There are clearly political reasons behind it,” said senior BJP leader Saryu Roy, who got the scam unearthed.