Bhopal: The horse-trading allegations against BJP seem to have boomeranged towards Congress, as two legislators have on Thursday claimed that they were not abducted and not given any cash. The MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, who were brought back by a special plane by ministers to Bhopal, on Thursday denied charges of horse-trading and abduction.
Reiterating their support to the Congress-led Kamal Nath government, BSP MLAs Rambai Singh and Sanjeev Singh Kushwaha and SP legislator Rajesh Shukla denied that any BJP leader contacted them and offered a deal.
A group of Congress, BSP and SP MLAs arrived here on Wednesday afternoon in a special plane along with Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot.
Talking to media persons, Rakesh Shukla, the SP MLA from Mehgaon, denied the Congress’ charges of horse-trading and abduction by BJP leaders.
“There is nothing like that. I and a BSP MLA (Kushwaha) coincidentally reached Delhi together and were staying at a hotel in Gurugram. We are not so weak that someone can abduct us,” Shukla said, adding that none from the BJP contacted him in the past two-three days.
Reiterating his support to the Kamal Nath government, Shukla said the government might have been facing “threat from Congress leaders”, but not from him.
Regarding their return in the chartered plane along with Congress leaders, Shukla said he was called by state ministers Jaivardhan Singh, Jitu Patwari and Congress veteran Digvijay Singh to the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan in New Delhi and offered the flight. “Since I had to return to Bhopal, I came with them,” he said.
Kushwaha also denied abduction and horse-trading charges, and said it is not a crime to visit Delhi. He also denied being contacted by any BJP leader.
While expressing his party’s support to the Congress-led regime, Kushwaha said, “I was contacted by Digvijay Singh and offered special plane to Bhopal. So, I took the flight.”
On Thursday morning, the Congress held a press conference in New Delhi, in which it claimed the BJP abducted 14 MLAs to bring down its government in Madhya Pradesh.
