MUMBAI: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Tuesday attacked BJP over the controversy around Vinod Tawde allegedly distributing money to voters.
Congress’s Rahul Gandhi said on X, “Modiji, this Rs 5 crore has come from whose safe? Who looted the public’s money and sent you in the tempo?” Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said the alleged cash for votes case was BJP’s ‘note jihad, and Supriya Sule of NCP (SP) wondered where so much cash had come from post-demonetization.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X, “PM Modi wants to make Maharashtra ‘safe’ with ‘money power’ and ‘muscle power.’ On one hand, there is a deadly attack on the former home minister (Anil Deshmukh) of the state, on the other hand, a senior BJP leader is caught red-handed with Rs 5 crore in cash. The public will answer this by voting tomorrow.”

In a spin on BJP’s ‘batenge toh katenge’ slogan, Uddhav said, “We need to ask if their new slogan is ‘baatenge to jeetenge’ (If we distribute, we will win). Paisa baatenge aur election jeetenge.” He said the tip-off might have come from an internal war within BJP. “This could be within BJP or between BJP and CM Eknath Shinde’s party,” he said. “Tawde should get a PhD. He is praised for toppling and forming govts. Now we know the secret of how he does it,” he said.
Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the home department had kept Tawde under surveillance and a BJP neta gave the tip-off to Hitendra Thakur. arrangements were made to catch him. “Vinod Tawde will be a problem for them, because he is the face of Bahujan Samaj. A man from Maharashtra is the national general secretary. He has some secrets in his head. Therefore, a conspiracy was hatched within BJP to catch him this way,” Raut said. Sule asked how a sum of Rs 5 crore was available in cash and could be taken to Virar without interception. “The PM implemented demonetization to curb black money. How did a sum of Rs 5 crore in cash reach BJP?” she asked.