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Video showing ‘money for nomination’ call stings Bengal BJP; party alleges conspiracy
The video, the authenticity of which could not be verified by HT, was posted by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on its official Twitter handle at 12.41 pm. It soon went viral.
A video, showing a cell phone during a call being made on speaker mode, caused embarrassment for the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday afternoon as it purportedly showed a party worker asking for one lakh rupees from an unidentified person for candidature during the coming civic body polls.
The BJP worker also allegedly claimed that victory for some BJP candidates could be ensured “in arrangement with the TMC”.
The unidentified caller, who sought nomination for 12 people, tried to bargain.
The video, the authenticity of which could not be verified by HT, was posted by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on its official Twitter handle at 12.41 pm. It soon went viral.
Elections for Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporation seats will be held on December 19. It will be followed in phases in more than a hundred civic body areas in the rest of Bengal. Though the five-year tenure of most of the civic boards ended in 2018-19, the polls were indefinitely postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The video purportedly showed a conversation taking place between Pritam Sarkar, a BJP worker from Behala in the south-western suburbs of Kolkata, and an unknown caller. Sarkar’s photograph, which was apparently saved in the caller’s phonebook, showed up on the screen.
The conversation mentioned BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar. The TMC’s tweet said: “@BJP4Bengal is demanding one lakh for each candidate. @DrSukantaBJP, is this how you collect funds for your propaganda? SHOCKING!”
Majumdar brushed aside the allegation and said, “The BJP worker featuring in the video earlier worked for the TMC. The truth will be exposed soon.” Sarkar claimed that the voice heard in the video was not his.
“This is a conspiracy by a group of people who want to create problems for the BJP before the civic polls,” he told the media.
The name of Shankar Sikdar, president of the BJP’s south Kolkata unit, also figured in the conversation.
“This is a conspiracy by the ruling party and certainly not the first one. Our leaders are not involved in such practices,” said Sikdar.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said some BJP leaders had alleged in the past that money changed hands before allotment of election tickets.
“Even former state BJP president Tathagata Roy recently alleged that money played a role in allotment of tickets before the recent assembly polls. This video calls for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate,” said Ghosh.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “People will laugh at the suggestion that anyone can contest for the BJP by giving one lakh rupees. One of the voices in the audio is doctored.”
