Ahead of crucial Gujarat by-polls for 8 seats on Nov 3, former Congress MLA Soma Bhai Patel was caught on camera accepting that union home minister Amit Shah paid him nearly 10 crores to switch sides.Patel had quit the Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls held early this year.
Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavad released a video on Sunday in which Patel can be seen saying that Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Gujarat BJP president CR Patil are trying to strike a deal with the leaders from the opposition camp.In the video, which BJP alleged was fabricated, Patel can be heard saying that not only him, but other leaders were also given around rupees 10 crores each.
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Chavda claimed the ruling BJP was indulging in horse-trading by using money collected through corrupt means.
Questioning the video's authenticity, the state BJP president C.R. Patil rejected the claim that his party was involved in horse-trading. He blamed Congress for indulging in a "low-level political rhetoric and conspiracy" as it stared at defeat in the by-polls.
The by-polls for eight seats were necessitated after Congress MLAs resigned in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year.
The eight seats are Abdasa in Kutch, Morbi, Dhari in Amreli district, Gadhada in Botad district, Karjan in Vadodara, Dangs, Kaprada in Valsad district, and Limbdi in Surendranagar district.
Currently, BJP has a stable majority in the Gujarat Assembly with 103 seats out of 182. All the eight seats were earlier with the Congress.
