A day before Maharashtra’s elections, political tensions in Virar increased as members of the Bhujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) gheraoed BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde over claims that he had distributed money to sway voters.
An Election Commission (EC) official said, “Rs 9.93 lakh have been recovered from the hotel rooms (of Tawde)”.
Following more than three hours of chaos, it was agreed that Vinod Tawde, Hitendra Thakur, his son Kshitij, and BJP candidate Rajan Naik would have a joint press conference at the hotel. However, EC authorities interrupted the press conference as it was getting underway, claiming that it was unlawful to have one. The police have filed an FIR in the matter.
Hitendra Thakur, his son Kshitij, and Tawde left together in a car with Tawde saying they are going for lunch.
On Tuesday, Suresh Padvi, the official candidate of the BVA, led by Thakur, for the Dahanu Assembly seat, joined the BJP. According to Padvi, he supports Vinod Mendha, the official candidate of the BJP. According to BVA, the distribution of the diary refers to Rs 15 crore.
The incident took place at a hotel in Virar, when BVA employees said Tawde was caught in possession of cash. The BVA claims that a diary mentioning the disbursement of Rs 15 crore was found in a bag that Tawde was in possession of. The Vasai-Virar BVA MLA, Hitendra Thakur, said that Tawde had brought Rs 5 crore in cash.
When Hitendra Thakur’s son, Kshitij Thakur, the current Nalasopara MLA, allegedly stole the diary with the information on the purported cash distribution, the matter became more heated. He asked why Tawde was in Virar after the formal end of the campaign on Monday night.
The BVA also expressed displeasure with the hotel’s broken CCTV systems. “The hotel should also face consequences. The CCTV system was shut down just because money was being distributed, Thakur stated.
Reacting to the incident Sena UBT president Uddhav Thackeray referred to his bags being checked and said, “I have come here to take the Darshan of goddess Tulja Bhavani. When I came here my bags were checked but they found nothing. I got to know from the media that cash was found in the bags of Vinod Tawde. Yesterday there was an attack on NCP leader Anil Deshmukh… Who was supposed to check all this? Hence I prayed to Goddess that soon this corrupt government should go…”
BJP’s Response
The BJP denied the claims, calling them politically driven and without merit. “Vinod Tawde is a national general secretary,” said senior BJP politician Sudhir Mungantiwar, mocking the charges. Will he be allocating funds at the ward level? Those assertions are ludicrous.
Another BJP leader, Atul Bhatkhalkar, referred to the accusations as a “false narrative” spread by opposition parties that were about to lose. He went on to say that the accusations were a part of a concerted effort to damage the BJP’s reputation.
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