Senior Congress leader and party’s Maharashtra in-charge, Ramesh Chennithala, has demanded the immediate arrest of BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, who was allegedly caught red-handed distributing money to voters in Vasai Virar.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party and Mahayuti have been misusing large amounts of money and power out of fear of defeat and BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde has been caught red-handed distributing money to voters in Vasai Virar. Vinod Tawde is being accused of sharing Rs 5 crore. So, he must be arrested immediately,” Chennithala said.

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Chennithala alleged that the ruling BJP and its allies have been grossly misusing power and money in the Maharashtra assembly election campaign. “Police and Election Commission officials were present at the spot when cash worth Rs 10 lakh was seized from the spot, yet Tawde has not been arrested. As per rules, a person from outside the constituency cannot stay after campaigning, but Tawde admitted to having visited Vasai Virar and holding a meeting with workers, thus breaching the code of conduct. According to information received from the media and eyewitnesses, Tawde has distributed Rs 5 crore, he must be arrested immediately,” Chennithala said.

He alleged that not only in Vasai Virar but across the state of Maharashtra, efforts are being made to buy public opinion by distributing money to voters, by the BJP and the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

Chennithala said that free and fair elections would only be possible if the Election Commission took action against the widespread distribution of money across the state and arrested those distributing money.

Reacting to news reports about BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde being caught distributing money in Virar, Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil asked if BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis has started some new scheme called “Ladka Vinod Yojana”.

Gadgil recalled that in 1987, Balasaheb Thackeray and Ramesh Prabhu were disqualified from voting for 6 years by the Election Commission for using religion in their propaganda. “Will the Election Commission show that it is impartial by taking away Tawde’s authority or will it dump this matter in the washing machine and give him a clean chit,” Gadgil asked.

In a related development, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray stated that the alleged cash-for-vote case involving BJP leader Vinod Tawde could be the result of the BJP’s “internal gang war”.

Thackeray said, “Based on the evidence, action should be taken. Otherwise, Maharashtra will take action on its own. This could be due to a gang war between them. It is possible that someone from within the BJP had tipped off Hitendra Thakur’s men.”

Earlier, senior Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut alleged in a post on X that some BJP leaders had given information about Tawde to Bahujan Vikas Aghadi’s (BVA) president Hitendra Thakur. Raut’s tweet on X stated, “BJP’s game is crazy. Hitendra Thakur did the work which should have been done by the Election Commission.”