Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024| Bahujan Vikas Aghadi chief accuses BJP gen-sec of distributing money in Virar

Palghar: In what snowballed into a major political issue in Maharashtra on the eve of voting for Vidhan Sabha polls, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi claimed that they have caught red-ended BJP’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde while he was distributing money.

The BJP’s Maharashtra unit has denied the allegations.

BVA founder Hitendra Thakur alleged that his party colleagues and workers had seen Tawde distributing money.

“Five crores were being distributed…I have recovered the diaries…it is in my hand,” Thakur told TV channels over phone.

“Tawde called me 25 times and apologised,” Thakur claimed and demanded that the Election Commission, police and administration take action against him. “Do what is there in the law,” he said.

Thakur is an MLA from Vasai while his son Kshitij Thakur is an MLA from neighbouring Nalasopara.

The father-son duo are seeking re-election.

The incident happened in a hotel in Virar, which is in the far western suburbs of Mumbai located in Palghar district.

The Thakur father-son duo are outside the hotel.

Tawde is inside the hotel where a large posse of police personnel has been deployed.

“BJP does not do all such things…these are baseless,” said BJP MLC Pravin Darekar.

The opposition Maha Vikas Agahdi slammed the BJP in the wake of the emerging situation.

BVA gets a surprise in Dahanu

Around a time when Thakur’s workers surrounded Tawde in a Virar hotel, the BVA’s candidate from Dahanu joined the BJP. The BVA candidate Suresh Padvi declared his support to the BJP’s candidate Vinod Medha from the Dahanu (ST) seat in Palghar district.

Padvi was inducted into the saffron party by Palghar BJP district President Bharat Rajput. The Dahanu seat is currently represented by CPI (M)’s Vinod Nikole. This has resulted into speculation whether the Tawde incident is linked to BJP poaching the BVA candidate.

'I discussed the matter with BJP's district leadership and have joined forces with them,” said Padvi. In the outgoing Assembly, the BVA has three seats - and in 2019, it was the fifth largest party in after BJP, Congress and undivided Shiv Sena and undivided NCP.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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