After the Congress party taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa for allegedly paying off BJP leaders, “judges” and “advocates” a little more than Rs 1,800 crores, Nana Patole, the President of All India Kisan Congress has alleged that Nitin Gadkari ‘sold Nagpur to his contractor, builder and businessmen friends,’ after becoming the member of Parliament from Nagpur.
In a Caravan report, journalists Aathira Konkkara and Nileena MS accessed documents that were also in possession of the income-tax department — copies of diary entries in the handwriting of BS Yeddyurappa. These diary entries note payoffs amounting to over Rs 1,800 crore to the BJP’s national leaders, its central committee, and judges and advocates. Yeddyurappa recorded these alleged payouts, the report said, in a Karnataka state assembly legislator’s 2009 diary. The notations were handwritten in Kannada.
The records in the diary point towards, payment of Rs 1,000 crore to the BJP Central Committee; payment made to finance minister Arun Jaitley and transport minister Nitin Gadkari — Rs 150 crore each; payment of Rs 100 crore to home minister Rajnath Singh; payment of Rs 50 crore each to senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi; Payment of Rs 10 crore for “Gadkari’s son’s marriage”; payment of Rs 250 crore to “judges” and of Rs 50 crore to “Advocates (fee paid for cases).”
Taking to Twitter, Patole wrote, “So BS Yeddyurappa paid Nitin Gadkari 150 cr to become CM. Gadkari, who calls himself MP of Nagpur is a dalal. I want to ask him how many crores did he take to sell of Nagpur to his contractor, builder & businessmen friends?”
So @BSYBJP paid @nitin_gadkari 150 cr to become CM. #Gadkari who calls himself MP of #Nagpur is a dalal. I want to ask him how many crores did he take to sell of Nagpur to his contractor, builder & businessmen friends? @RahulGandhi @INCIndia @divyaspandana @IYC @rssurjewala pic.twitter.com/8YbkAHHems
— Nana Patole (@NANA_PATOLE) March 22, 2019
Patole, whose name featured in the first list of candidates released by the Congress party, will be fighting Gadkari in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls for the Nagpur seat.