Thiruvananthapuram: For a second consecutive day, the allegation of corruption against some leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala rocked the federal Parliament which witnessed heated arguments.
The allegation is that some BJP leaders in the state unit of the party took bribes to facilitate sanctions for a medical college near Palakkad. The charge is that Rs56 million (Dh3.1 million) changed hands for the medical college to get approval from federal authorities.
On Friday, the issue was raised again in Parliament, this time by Communist Party of India Marxist MP, A. Sampath When the speaker denied permission to him, ruling and Opposition MPs from Kerala marched to the well of the House and raised slogans.
CPM MP, M.B. Rajesh sought to move an adjournment motion on the issue, but the speaker disallowed it. Sampath then intervened, waving a copy of the demand for a judicial inquiry into the matter, recommended by BJP members themselves from Kerala. But the speaker directed to put off Sampath’s microphone.
Federal health minister J.P. Nadda was present in Parliament during the commotion over the corruption allegation, but did not respond to the protests.
In Kerala, local media reported that there was a likelihood that BJP official A.K. Nazeer, who was a member of the party’s internal inquiry committee, may be suspended from the party over the suspicion that it was he who leaked the inquiry committee’s report to the media. Nazeer denied the allegation.
Kerala has ordered a vigilance inquiry into the allegation, and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the corruption charge.
Meanwhile, the ground shook further in Kerala for the BJP with allegations surfacing that there had been widespread corruption in the organisation of the party’s national council in Kozhikode.
