Mumbai: Around noon on Tuesday (November 19), a group of activists from the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) stormed into Hotel Vivanta in Manvelpada in Nalasopara, where BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde was stationed. The activists, along with a few local media groups, cornered Tawade and alleged that he was in the hotel purportedly to distribute Rs 5 crore in the constituency.
One of his diaries containing alleged notings of the persons to whom the money was to be delivered was also snatched.
In several videos circulated on social media, Tawde, a close associate of Union home minister Amit Shah, could be seen pleading before the agitated crowd to let him go. As the chaos intensified, local police and Election Commission officials reached the hotel.
According to the Indian Express, Rs 9.93 lakh was recovered from Tawde’s hotel room. The police have registered an FIR against him.
A few hours after the drama unfolded, Tawde, speaking to the media, claimed that he was in Nalasopara to meet BJP karyakartas. “I came here to discuss minute election-related details with party workers; details relating to the model code of conduct; how the voting machine is supposed to be sealed; if someone from the party were to raise an objection, how to go about doing that, etc.”
While sitting with party workers, Tawde said, members of Hitendra Thakur’s BVA gathered and began to make allegations that he was distributing money. While Thakur was not at the hotel, it was his son Kshitij who had allegedly snatched the diary from Tawde.
“I have been with the BJP for 40 years, BVA members are known to me. The reality is known to them. I want the CCTV footage of the hotel to be examined. I want the Election Commission, the police to carry out an unbiased investigation in the allegations made against me,” Tawde said.
Thakur, who claimed to have caught Tawde “red-handed”, however claimed that he had prior inputs that Tawde would be in the area with a bagful of money. “I got to know about this from a senior BJP leader,” he claimed.
He further claimed that since the incident was out in the open, Tawde had been contacting him and pleading with him non-stop to “settle the matter”.
“I have his diary. It has explosive information in it. The diary has details of people to whom the money has to be distributed. It is clear that Tawade was in the region to distribute money,” he claimed.
At the hotel after the row, Hitendra Thakur, his son Kshitij, Tawde and the BJP’s Nalasopara candidate Rajan Naik decided to hold a “joint press conference”. This was, however, stopped by the Election Commission. With the political campaign having come to an end on Monday, political parties are barred from making any political statements until polling on November 20.
The BVA in the parliamentary election had supported the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance.
In another strange event today after the row at the hotel, Hitendra Thakur, Kshitij and Tawde left together in a car to “have lunch”.
While this cash-for-vote drama unfolded in the hotel, in close-by Dahanu the BVA’s MLA candidate decided to withdraw from the fray just a day before the election. The party’s Suresh Padvi called for a press conference where he declared that he was leaving the BVA and would support the BJP’s official candidate Vinod Mendha in the constituency.
The Nalasopara incident led to a political furore. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said, “The BJPs’ game is over now. The job which has to be done by the Election Commission was done by Thakurs.”
BJP leaders, however, have tried to downplay the incident. Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar of the BJP said: “Vinod Tawde is a national general secretary. Is he going to distribute money at ward levels? If tomorrow someone from the BJP claims Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar are distributing money, I will admonish him then and there.”
State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule in a media statement claimed it was a “well-planned conspiracy to malign Tawde’s image”.
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) MP Supriya Sule said, “It is shocking that a national leader of such a big party is distributing money. This is very dangerous for any democracy.”
She continued: “If people want to get elected by distributing money, then what should people like us do? Is there morality in this country or not? I publicly condemn this distribution of money. It should be investigated.”
In another identical incident in Nashik district, the Election Commission’s flying squad allegedly seized a bag with Rs 1.98 crore from Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) leader Jayant Sathe’s hotel room.
Uddhav Thackeray at a press gathering in Mumbai demanded action against both Tawde and Sathe.
Reacting to Thakur’s statement that he was informed about Tawde’s movements by a senior BJP leader, Thackeray said, “It could be the outcome of an internal gang war within the BJP. Whatever the reason be, the police should investigate this thoroughly.”
