The ruling Congress hit out on Monday at Bharatiya Janata Party leader Satpal Maharaj’s barbs against chief minister Harish Rawat, saying he should first answer corruption charges leveled against him and his wife by the BJP.
On Sunday, Maharaj, a former Congress leader who joined the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, accused the Rawat government of corruption.
To counter his allegations, chief minister’s media in-charge and Congress spokesperson Surendra Kumar said the BJP had accused Maharaj and his wife Amrita Rawat, a former minister in the Congress government, of being involved in the poly house purchase scam.
He alleged that then horticulture minister Amrita and her husband Maharaj had siphoned off lakhs of rupees of subsidy for farmers to help them set up polyhouses. “The BJP has not withdrawn its allegations yet…So, Maharaj should first take a certificate from the leaders of his party (BJP) that the allegations they had leveled against him and his wife were wrong,” Kumar said.