Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinod Tawde on Friday sent a legal notice to Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Supriya Shrinate, demanding that they apologise for allegedly making “baseless allegations” against him.
The Congress leaders had accused him of distributing cash to voters in the city of Nalasopara near Mumbai to influence them ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections held on November 20.
The legal notice demanded that Congress leaders should publish an unconditional apology in at least three English and three regional newspapers as well as on social media platform X. It stated that if they failed to comply, Tawde would file a criminal case and initiate civil proceedings worth Rs 100 crore.
On November 19, a day before the Maharashtra elections, Bahujan Vikas Agadi supporters confronted Tawde in a hotel in Nalasopara and accused him of distributing Rs 5 lakh in cash to influence voters.
The Bahujan Vikas Agadi claimed that a bag in Tawde’s possession contained a diary mentioning the distribution of Rs 15 crore cash. Following the allegations, the Election Commission has filed an FIR against Tawde.
The BJP leader, however, said he had gone to the hotel to meet the party’s candidate Rajan Naik and other party workers. On Friday, he said that neither the Election Commission nor the police had recovered the alleged cash worth Rs 5 crore.
Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly took place in a single phase on Wednesday. The counting of votes will take place on Saturday, alongside that of the Jharkhand elections.