A tale of how money powers House entry

Against his pretending low-profile which can dismiss him as an attendant who runs errand for a powerful politician, this whistleblower has a tale to tell — how money powers a contestant to the Rajya Sabha.

He has witnessed ‘horse-trading’ during the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand, and passed many critical clues to the Income Tax.

On the condition of anonymity, this 45-year-old man opens his mouth: “I will be eliminated if they (the contestants) get to know about me. I may have breached their trust but I did it for a good cause.”

Closely associated with many powerful politicians, this man has been a frequent visitor to the power corridor. He is now ready to blow the lids off the sensational story of MLAs being put on the auction by candidates contesting the Jharkhand RS poll. This anonymous whistleblower was roped-in by one or other candidates to muster votes of MLAs.

“At the last moment, the entire game of the Rajya Sabha election turned into a tussle between the merchants,” he said. The man revealed some more names who remained closely associated with one of the contestants during the RS poll campaign.

The whistleblower added that one Rajiv Kumar Singh, resident of Ashok Nagar, who is believed to be Central Government employee in Delhi, was the right hand man of one of the contestants in the RS poll. “This contestant offered `2 crore for the vote of first preference and `1 crore for the vote of second preference,” he said. In the first lot of payment this person had paid money to 13 MLAs, including those from the JMM and some independents.

The whistleblower claimed that a couple of BJP MLAs too entered into deals with this contestant. However, the whistleblower also mentioned couple of names who refused the bribe offer for vote. They were Raghuwar Das, Neelkanth Singh Munda of the BJP, Annapurna Devi of the RJD and all BJP Ministers in the State Government.

“The second contestant had a rather lucrative offer that gave competition to the first contestant who had offered `2 crore for the vote of first preference and `1 crore for the vote of second preference. This second contestant offered `2.30 crore for first preference vote and `1.50 crore for second preference. He contacted around 29 MLAs of the BJP and the JMM, independent and others. He was very careful and cautious,” said the whistleblower. This contestant rather deployed top industrialist or business family of the said constituency of MLAs to secure their votes.

“Heavy payment was made on Thursday night (a day before the election). They used all their resources to make best electoral deal that night. A white Indica car was parked on the Assembly premises and was used to bring money. It slipped before we could inform Income Tax sleuths,” added the whistleblower.

Top Income Tax sources told The Pioneer that 21 MLAs of the Assembly were under IT scanner. “We received vital information. We can’t disclose the names of whistleblowers. We have evidence to suggest that around six to seven MLAs received money to cast their vote,” said a top official.

“The second contestant is known to me and I had campaigned for him as he was a good candidate. But that does not mean that either he or me were involved in any horse-trading,” said the whisteblower.