New Delhi:
The Congress has hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a day after NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra alleged that he had funded the election campaign of senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi in 2004 and 2009. Mr Mishra, who withdrew from the Rajya Sabha race from Jharkhand at the last moment, had claimed that he was BJP's fund-raiser for over a decade. He said that Mr Joshi had called him seeking funds for elections. Mr Mishra claimed to have played a role in Mr Joshi's poll campaign in 2004 and 2009.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the allegations were serious and could not be ignored.
"The allegations which have been put seem to be very serious....We need to seriously look into the matter...When someone puts allegations like this they cannot be ignored....It is a very serious allegation," Mr Singhvi said.
However, Mr Joshi denied the allegations, saying, "As far as I am concerned. I very clearly know had he funded me, he would have come to me to ask for a ticket. There is no truth to this it is all baseless."
Mr Mishra, who was supported by a section of the BJP as a Rajya Sabha nominee, dropped out following a directive from the BJP central leadership to its MLAs not to vote for him.
From LK Advani to Sushma Swaraj, they all agreed that the entrepreneur's background and his status as an "outsider" in Jharkhand make him an unsuitable candidate. But nobody opposed Mr Mishra more vociferously than Yashwant Sinha, who said that by supporting him, the BJP is tempting its MLAS in Jharkhand to sell their vote.
Mr Mishra, a 37-year-old businessman from London, had told NDTV it was just as well that he was pulling out of the race, otherwise in the very least he would have gone bald. "I will never contest another Rajya Sabha elections. I have lost so much hair in the last 10 days that I fear I will go bald if I contest," he said.
The BJP has 18 MLAs in Jharkhand Assembly. The arithmetic is such that 27 MLAs have to support a candidate for him to win a Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Mr Mishra says he had the numbers, and would've won even if the BJP abstained, because that would bring down the effective numbers needed to win a seat.