Bhopal, Jul 30: Ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh yesterday accused the opposition Congress of adopting "dirty tricks" to malign its image by raising the issue of two of its ministers whose names found mention in a diary seized by Income Tax authorities from the premises of two mining barons.
Congress has demanded resignation of MP Public Relations and Culture Minister Laxmikant Sharma and Energy and Mining Minister Rajendra Shukla after their names found mention in a diary seized from the residence of the two businessmen associated with the ruling BJP.
Rejecting the demand, Madhya Pradesh BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar and MP Industries Minister Kailash Vijaywargiya said various rulings by Income Tax authorities and the Supreme Court judgement in Jain hawala case clearly stated that entries in a diary cannot be treated as evidence against the accused.
They also asked Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh, who raised the issue, if then Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh and excise minister, whose names were also allegedly found in a diary seized from a liquor baron's house by Income Tax authorities, had resigned from their posts.
"Since Congress has no issues against BJP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, its dirty tricks department has devised a plan to malign the MP government's image by raising such baseless issues and misusing central agencies like Income Tax and CBI to gain political mileage in a poll-bound state, like it had done in Gujarat and other places," the BJP alleged.
"BJP strongly condemns these acts of the Congress and blamed Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel and Congress general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Mohan Prakash for it," Vijaywargiya said.
"There is no iota of truth in these allegations and this will be proved during investigations," he said.
