'PM, sonia had knowledge about cash-for-votes scam'

Terming the "cash-for-votes" scam as "incomparable and more obnoxious than Bofors", L K Advani alleged that it could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi.

Terming the "cash-for-votes" scam as "incomparable and more obnoxious than Bofors", senior BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday alleged that it could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

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"This could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of top leadership of the Congress and the government. The nation expects Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh to break their silence on this unprecedented scandal," Advani said at a conference on 'Governance and Politics', organised by the Legal and Legislative Cell of BJP.

He expressed hope the Parliamentary Committee probing the cash-for-vote scam would bring out the truth. "However, I would like to warn the Congress leaders and the government that any attempt to cover up truth in this scandal as was done by the Joint Parliamentary Committee in the Bofors case will not be tolerated by people. That happened in 1989; it will happen again in 2009," Advani said.

Advani said the BJP-led NDA had preferred defeat to horse-trading in 1999 when the NDA government fell by one vote. "Nobody, not even our critics, accused us of having indulged in horse-trading to retain power."

The BJP is committed to good politics and good governance, Advani said.