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Virtually setting the cat among the pigeons, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist Mohit Kamboj-Bharatiya, hinted that he would soon 'expose' a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, attracting loud howls of protests from the Opposition, here on Wednesday.
Kamboj-Bharatiya's tweets came late on Tuesday -- strategically, on the eve of the monsoon session of Maharashtra Legislature -- "One NCP Big-Big leader will meet Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh soon!" He followed up with another missive - "The irrigation scam case should be investigated again which was closed in 2019 by Param Bir Singh". Kamboj-Bharatiya said he would soon hold a press conference and reveal the NCP leader, his assets in India and abroad, benami properties, assets in his girlfriend's name, corruption done as a minister in various ministries, and his family income and assets details. He also urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BJP's Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis to reopen the irrigation scam which had muddied the state politics a few years ago. "Har Har Mahadev... Ab Tandaav Hoga," added Kamboj-Bharatiya. With the reference to the irrigation scam, the needle of suspicion immediately pointed at current NCP Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, the bete-noire of the ruling alliance, who has not yet reacted to the tweets. However, other leaders of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) from NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena, besides anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania, slammed Kamboj-Bharatiya for the tweets. "It's a mystery... How does he (Kamboj-Bharatiya) come to know what the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is planning to do... Is he an agent of the probe agency," an NCP MLC Amol Mitkari said. Congress state President Nana Patole said all that the BJP is doing is threaten and terrorise the political opponents to silence them. "The BJP has been consistently intimidating the Opposition parties by misusing the ED, CBI, IT, etc. Terrorising and blackmailing the political opponents has become the main business of the BJP but we are not scared and it will not last long in a democracy," Patole said sharply. Sena leaders like Ambadas Danve, Aditya Thackeray, Vinayak Raut, Sacin Ahir and others slammed Kamboj-Bharatiya, questioned his links with the probe agencies, whether he was 'authorised' to speak on behalf of the ED, and demanded an investigation into his activities, too. Later, for more effect, Kamboj-Bharatiya chronologically listed the NCP-Shiv Sena leaders and an ex-top cop -- Deshmukh, Malik, ex-DGP Sanjay Pandey and Sena MP Sanjay Raut -- all currently in custody in different alleged corruption cases filed by the ED. At the bottom of the list with the 5th position shown as vacant, he appeared to gloat: "Our strike rate is 100 per cent!" Damania, who had earlier campaigned to book the irrigation scam accused, while welcoming Kamboj-Bharatiya's statement, questioned his motives and locus-standi as the warning came ahead of the assembly session, probably to subdue the Opposition. --IANS qn/pgh ( 484 Words) 2022-08-17-19:22:04 (IANS)
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