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National

BJP rebuts Uma Bharti charge

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: An allegation levelled by Bharatiya Janshakti Party leader Uma Bharti that the Rs. 1 crore displayed in the Lok Sabha on July 22 during the trust motion debate was supplied to the party MP Ashok Argal by a senior BJP leader was quickly rebutted by party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar here on Friday.

Around 7.30 p.m. Ms. Bharti gave to reporters some video-footage claiming to show that a man carrying the briefcase (supposedly with cash in it) into Mr. Argal's official bungalow was the same man seen carrying a briefcase out of the home of a senior BJP leader. The assumption and suggestion was that the briefcase contained the Rs. one crore later produced by the three BJP MPs in the Lok Sabha as proof that this was the money allegedly used by the Samajwadi Party to buy the votes of party MPs.

However, the video clip of Mr. Argal's home also showed a hoarding put up by the BJP the day after the government won the vote on the trust motion. The hoarding congratulates Mr. Argal for his integrity in exposing the cash-for-votes scandal.

After Ms. Bharti's press conference, Mr. Javadekar pointed out the obvious flaw in the accusation levelled by Ms. Bharti. The hoarding seen in the footage was set up after July 22. The footage had been shot after the trust vote and this exposed the hollowness of Ms. Bharti's claim, Mr. Javadekar said.

Party leaders have also charged that Ms. Bharti had been put up to do this shoddy job at the behest of some in the Samajwadi Party.

Ms. Bharti's own comment, when the discrepancy was pointed out to her, was that the reporters and the people must hear the audiotapes also. “Do listen to the audio-tapes. I have not seen the video-footage," she said

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