Congress offered bribe to MIM ahead of bypoll, alleges Sena

Mumbai, Apr 17: The Shiv Sena on Friday alleged that Congress offered crores of rupees in bribe in the run-up to the Bandra (East) by-election to the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen which denied the charge.

The MIM, however, hit back at Uddhav Thackeray-led party saying that "bribe culture" is not a part of its DNA.

It alleged that "offering-accepting bribe" is part of the culture of Shiv Sena and Congress.

Result for the Bandra (E) constituency by-polls was announced on Wednesday where Congress heavyweight Narayan Rane was defeated by Shiv Sena's Trupti Sawant, the wife of Sena MLA Bala Sawant whose death necessitated the by-poll. Senior Sena leader and Maharashtra Environment minister Ramdas Kadam said here that Rane had offered crores of rupees in bribe to MIM before the election.

"Nobody takes Narayan Rane or his sons seriously now. Today they have started to blame us for their defeat because their 'setting' with MIM went wrong. Rane had offered a bribe...to manage their party before the (bypoll) election," Kadam told reporters here.

Responding to an allegation made by Congress MLA Nitesh Rane on his meeting with an MIM legislator, the Sena leader said the MIM MLA was present during a lunch he had with several other MLAs in Aurangabad.

"I am the guardian minister of Aurangabad and hence keep visiting. On one such day, while I was having food with other MLAs, an MLA of MIM too came to meet me, and on humanitarian grounds I asked him to have food with me. There were many people around at that time," he said.

He claimed that it was Rane who had met an MIM MLA to "seal the deal" in a hotel.

Reacting to the allegations, MIM Aurangabad MLA Imtiyaz Jaleel shot back saying 'offering-accepting bribe' is a culture of the Shiv Sena and Congress and not MIM.

"Giving and taking bribes is a culture of Shiv Sena and Congress. It not in the DNA of MIM. One can never think of MIM of doing such things. And if the Shiv Sena had the bribe information pre-hand, why did they keep quiet for so long?

"They could have brought this issue out in front of the people before. But by doing so now, it proves that the party is making such allegations for cheap publicity," Jaleel told reporters.

PTI