Now, Cong releases Lehar Singh's diary to counter BJP

 The Congress on Saturday tried to turn the tables on the BJP by latching on to a diary that purportedly provides details of payoffs by state BJP leaders to the party central leadership.

Copies of the contents of the diary, which have been doing the rounds on social media since Friday, were released by Congress leaders at a press conference in Bengaluru. The diary reportedly belongs to BJP MLC Lehar Singh.

KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao said he had information that the diary was seized by I-T officials during raids on Singh’s residence in November 2013. The diary mentions several initials reportedly of state and central BJP leaders and has two columns – received and paid. The ‘paid’ column has entries like AS - Rs 34 crore; BSY - Rs 69 crore; NaMo - 120 crore; MD Rao - Rs 4.8 crore among others. The entries add up to Rs 391.8 crore. The ‘received’ column has entries like CMO+RA - Rs 67 crore; M Nirani - Rs 128 crore;  Renu - Rs 13 crore;  RR+KSE - Rs 31 crore among others. The entries add up to Rs 391.8 crore.

The Congress also released copies of a letter written by Singh to senior leader L K Advani in May 2013. In the letter, Singh confronts Advani over corruption in the party. The letter resulted in Singh being suspended from the party.

In its response, the BJP stated that the so-called diary of Singh is “forged, mischievous and defamatory”. BJP spokesperson Ashwanathnarayan told the media that in 2013, nobody referred to Narendra Modi as NaMo, Muralidhar Rao (MD Rao) was not even an office officer-bearer of the party. Amit Shah (AS) was not the party president and B S Yeddyurappa (BSY) was not even in the BJP as he had quit the party to join the KJP.

When contacted, Singh said, “There is no such diary. My signature has been forged. I am planning to demand a CBI inquiry into the entire episode.”

The BJP Social Media Cell has filed a complaint with Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood seeking investigation and arrest of the culprits behind the “fake diary”.

“The BJP has submitted a petition The police are looking into the petition,” Sood said.