Congress on Friday claimed that the Karnataka state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), BS Yeddyurappa, had bribed senior leaders of his party in 2009. The comments were made at a press conference conducted by Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.
It was claimed that Yeddyurappa had paid over Rs 1,800 crore as bribe to senior BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.
Citing an article named "The Yeddy Diaries" from The Caravan magazine, Surjewala said that the Karnataka BJP chief and former Karnataka Chief Minister had bribed top leaders in 2009. He also claimed that Yeddyurappa's diary with signature on all pages is in the possession of the Income Tax (IT) department since 2017.
According to the report, Yeddyurappa made these records in his own handwriting in a Karnataka state Assembly legislator's 2009 diary in Kannada.
The copies of the diary pages note that Yeddyurappa paid the BJP Central Committee Rs 1,000 crore; that he paid the finance minister Arun Jaitley and the transport minister Nitin Gadkari Rs 150 crore each; that he gave the home minister Rajnath Singh Rs 100 crore; and that he paid the BJP stalwart LK Advani and the senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi Rs 50 crore each. Besides this, the entry notes, Yeddyurappa paid Rs 10 crore for "Gadkari's son's marriage." The diary entries also state that Yeddyurappa paid Rs 250 crore to "judges" and Rs 50 crore to "Advocates (fee paid for cases)," but does not mention any names, reports The Caravan.
The Congress leader further said that the Narendra Modi government had denied permission to investigate the diary trail.
Yeddyurappa reacts
The BJP state president reacted to the allegations by releasing a statement saying that the Congress party and its leaders are bankrupt of ideas, they are frustrated with the growing popularity of the Modi Ji and BJP, they have lost the battle before it began. IT Department officials have already proved that the documents are forged and fake.
He tweeted the statement on Twitter over the Congress allegation saying, "Absolute nonsense, disgusting & desperate efforts by Indian National Congress (INC) to release such fake diary, prove it at the earliest or face defamation case.
