Ahmedabad: Ahead of the November 3 bypolls in eight Assembly seats in Gujarat, the Congress on Sunday released a video, claiming it showed a former MLA of the party accepting that he was paid crores by the BJP to switch sides.
Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda released the video at a press conference here and sought a judicial inquiry or a probe by state and central investigative agencies.
The state BJP president C R Paatil questioned the video’s authenticity and rejected the claim that his party was involved in horse trading.
Chavda claimed the ruling BJP was indulging in horse trading by using money gathered through corrupt means.
Rubbishing the claim, Paatil said the Congress was indulging in a “low level political rhetoric and conspiracy” as it stared at defeat in the bypolls.
Chavda named the former MLA seen in the video, saying he quit ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls held early this year.
Refuting the allegations at a press conference in Surat, Paatil accused the Congress of spreading lies as it was staring at defeat in all the eight seats.
A total of 81 candidates are in the fray for the eight seats, including 51 independents, with Limbdi leading with 14 candidates and Kaprada, a Scheduled Tribe-reserved seat, at the other end with just four.
Twelve candidates each are in the fray from Morbi and Gadhada, 11 from Dhari, 10 in Abdasa, and nine each in Karjan and Dang.
The Bharatiya Tribal Party has fielded two candidates on Dang, an ST-reserved seat, and Karjan.
The counting of votes will be held November 10.(PTI)
