The BJP on Tuesday denied allegations that its national general secretary Vinod Tawde was caught red-handed while distributing cash to voters at a hotel in Virar near Mumbai, more than 17 hours after campaigning for the Maharashtra Assembly election concluded.

In a statement, Vinod Tawde said, “I had gone to the hotel to brief my party workers about the Election Commission’s latest rules related to the code of conduct. However, some allegations were made against me, and the Election Commission must investigate these allegations”.

BJP candidate Rajan Naik, who was also present at the meeting at Hotel Vivanta, claimed, “The bundles of money found in the hotel have nothing to do with BJP. You may close the gates of the hotel and check our workers.”

BJP leader Atul Bhatkhalkar said that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has made these baseless accusations because the MVA which is staring at certain defeat wants to tarnish the BJP’s image.

Incidentally, Virar is part of the Nalasopara assembly constituency, which is presently represented by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) MLA Kshitij Thakur, who is related to BVA president Hitendra Thakur. The electoral battle is between BJP’s Rajan Naik and Sandeep Pandey of the Congress.

Despite BVA’s previous support to the BJP-backed Mahayuti with three MLAs in 2019, BVA president Hitendra Thakur questioned the presence of an “outsider” politician like BJP’s Vinod Tawde in Virar after campaigning ended.

BVA founder president Hitendra Thakur alleged that his party colleagues and workers had witnessed Vinod Tawde distributing money. Thakur alleged that BJP’s national secretary Vinod Tawde arrived at Hotel Vivanta in Manoripada, Virar East, on Tuesday with Rs 5 crore in cash. At that time, BJP candidate Rajan Naik and some office bearers of the BJP too were present at the hotel, where they were supposedly holding a meeting. That was when BVA party workers stormed the hotel and alleged that cash was being distributed to voters from the hotel. Immediately after this incident, the police reached the spot and brought the situation under control, even as BJP and BVA workers shouted slogans against each other.

According to allegations made by BVA’s Hitendra Thakur, after receiving a tip-off from some BJP workers, BVA workers rushed to the hotel and seized two diaries containing details of the cash, along with bundles of cash, which have been taken away by the police.

“After this incident, Vinod Tawde called me 25 times and apologised,” Hitendra Thakur claimed. Thakur said that Vinod Tawde told him not to escalate the matter. “I will be personally escorting Vinod Tawde to his residence to ensure that he is not harmed by anybody,” BVA president Hitendra Thakur said.

Reacting to these allegations, senior Shiv Sena (Uddhav Bal Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut, who is part of the Congress-backed Maha Mikas Aghadi alleged that he has names of other BJP workers who are allegedly in charge of distributing cash to voters. “The real face of the BJP has been revealed. Vinod Tawde is the BJP’s national general secretary. He has been caught red-handed with Rs 5 crore cash and diaries. It is all on camera. The cash was seized by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi workers.”

“Well before the model code of conduct came into effect, Rs 15-20 crore reached every assembly constituency. Today, another person was caught with cash at Hotel Taj in Nashik. The name of the person caught at Nashik is Ram Repale and the cash belonged to the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. I have the names of 18 such individuals who have been distributing cash to voters. But what is really surprising is that Vinod Tawde himself distributed cash,” Raut said.

Raut also hinted that there is much more to this episode than meets the eye. “I heard that Vinod Tawde had more than Rs 15 crore with him. Out of that amount, Rs 5 crore has been seized by Bahujan Vikas Aghadi leader Hitesh Thakur’s party workers, who ought to be congratulated. I would like to add that it is a BJP leader who tipped off Hitendra Thakur about the cash seized from Vinod Tawde who is known to be close to Modi and Amit Shah. I will not be surprised if Tawde’s political rivals in the BJP itself have trapped him with the blessings of the home ministry. Devendra Fadnavis will have to explain how only Vinod Tawde from the BJP got caught. It must be kept in mind that Vinod Tawde is an OBC leader,” Raut said.