In a interview, Adhir was asked where he kept the money that, according to PM Modi’s allegations, reached the Congress leaders in “tempos’.
“Where is the money? I am a BPL (below poverty line) person. I am in great need of money. The individual openly admits to being poor and lacking funds for the election competition. Lacking financial resources, it is increasingly challenging to participate in elections these days. I don’t even need a tempo, if Adani sends me a bag of money, that will be enough for me,” the Congress leader was heard saying.
“But you speak against them in Parliament?” the interviewer asked Adhir. “Yes, I do because they don’t send us money. If they send, people become silent,” Adhir said.
BJP leaders were quick to bounce on his statements and said Adhir exposed the actual “hafta vasooli model’ of the Congress and the INDIA bloc.
“He (Adhir) has openly said that if they receive money bags, they keep quiet about any issue in Parliament and if they do not get money, they create ruckus. He even gave an example that if the groups they are targeting give them money, they become quiet,” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawal said targeting Adhir.
“Now going back to Rahul Gandhi’s speeches, he has stopped taking the names of the two people he often mentioned… During the UPA rule, Congress has earned ₹12 lakh crores by doing all this… INC means “I Need Corruption’, and this is an open game of political extortion. Whatever they say inside or outside Parliament is just for money…” Shehzad Poonawal said.
The statement also prompted reactions from leaders like BJP state president K Anamalai, who said “Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was the leader of the Congress party in the 17th Lok Sabha, exposed the Congress party’s propaganda in the last 10 years in less than 40 seconds’.
This also explains why Rahul Gandhi is not vehement with his propaganda like before, he said.
The Congress leader made a statement in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioning Adani and Ambani, questioning why Rahul Gandhi had stopped naming them during the election campaign and whether large sums of money had been received by the Congress. Rahul Gandhi refuted the accusation and questioned Modi about his knowledge of the money being transported in a tempo, as well as why an ED probe had not been initiated.