Kolkata, Sep 10 (IANS) Trinamool Congress’s National General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee, on Wednesday, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spending crores for horse trading in the recent Vice-Presidential polls.
“The BJP had at least spent Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore for purchasing each vote for the Vice-President polls. In the Rajya Sabha, there are some members who are officially with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) but in reality are with the BJP. I spoke to a few of them, and realised how the BJP encouraged a money game for the Vice-President polls,” Banerjee told media persons at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata after returning to the city from New Delhi earlier in the afternoon.
Banerjee also accused the BJP of encouraging the money game in West Bengal before the 2021 Assembly polls.
“But they (BJP) failed that time. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, they (BJP) tried to purchase the counting agents. They failed again. BJP has forgotten something. Some elected public representatives might be easily purchasable. But the common people are not,” he said.
Reacting to such allegations, West Bengal BJP President and Rajya Sabha MP, Samik Bhattacharya, said that responding to Abhishek Banerjee’s comments was useless since his baseless allegations reflected his sense of frustration.
“The Vice-President polls proved that while the NDA was united, the opposition INDIA bloc was devastated,” Bhattacharya added.
After the results of the Vice-Presidential election were announced on Tuesday, it was seen that the NDA candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan got 452 votes and thus defeated the Opposition INDIA bloc candidate B. Sudershan Reddy, who got just 300 votes. As many as 15 votes were declared invalid.
–IANS
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