By Neeraj Mishra
The Congress in Chhattisgarh is on a downward slide ever since it lost the Assembly elections three months ago. It has only caught more steam with a slew of new developments. The foremost, of course, is the FIR against former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in the Mahadev App case.
A betting app, Mahadev App had come into the news about eight months ago on the eve of state elections. The people behind this App, Saurabh Chandrakar and Ravi Uppal, are now based out of Dubai and had been running the satta racket which allegedly produced Rs 5000 crore in two years. They are accused by the Enforcement Directorate of making fake PayTm and other digital accounts in thousands of names and transferring money to Dubai via hawala. Mahadev App came into prominence when Chandrakar spent a whopping Rs 200 crore on his wedding celebrations in Dubai inviting the who’s who of Bollywood from Ranbir Kapoor to Jacqueline Fernandes.
That being the background, developments during the Assembly elections revealed that some Rs 500 crore had been given to Baghel as pay off. The ED had subsequently registered an FIR with the state Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to investigate the case based on information supplied by it against two dozen accused. Subsequently, the EOW carried out raids at the premises of several accused named including former chief secretary Vivek Dhand. Now, Baghel has also been named in the FIR allegedly filed on March 4 but details were revealed on March 17. Ironically, the FIR was filed under the charge of DM Awasthi, former DGP of Chhattisgarh Police, living on extension granted by Baghel and given charge of EOW.
Ironically, after Awasthi delivered on all the above—filing of FIR, raiding officers and other accused and including Baghel’s name charged under six sections—he was today relieved of his charge. IG Raipur Amresh Mishra has now taken over EOW. Awasthi on a year’s extension has not yet resigned.
As Baghel prepares to fight a losing battle in Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat, he is now under tremendous pressure. More pressure was placed on him today by his own partyman former PCC general secretary Arun Sisodiya, who has accused two of his closest aides of siphoning party funds. In a letter to PCC president Deepak Baij, Sisodiya accused party treasurer Ramgopal Agarwal of giving Rs 5.89 crore to Vinod Verma’s son without due process and proper sanction. Verma was Baghel’s political advisor and brother-in-law. Sisodiya says Verma’s son runs Tesu Media Limited, Ghaziabad and was paid the money by Agarwal without the sanction from then PCC president Mohan Markam. Tesu Media had run part of the election campaign for the Congress during the Assembly elections.
Several Congressmen, including grassroots workers, are now making a beeline for the BJP. Saroj Pandey, former Rajya Sabha member, who is now contesting from the Korba seat recently inducted a couple of hundred Congress workers in her new constituency. Sakti is part of her constituency and today, the son of former Sakti Congress MLA Surendra Bahadur joined the BJP.
The Congress has not yet been able to announce candidates for six of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies. Chhattisgarh will vote in three phases between April 27 and May 7.