Gujarat Cong leader accuses Raj nominee Raghu Sharma of working against party interests

Gujarat Cong leader accuses Raj nominee Raghu Sharma of working against party interestsNovember 23, 2023Jaipur, Nov 23 (IANS) Gujarat Congress leader Tejas Patel on Thursday accused Raghu Sharma, the Congress candidate from Kekri in Rajasthan for the November 25 Assembly polls, of working against party interests by helping the BJP to mint money worth crores.

Addressing a press conference here, Patel alleged that Raghu Sharma took Rs 400 crore from the BJP in exchange for creating confusion and defections in the Congress.“His narco-test should be done so that people come to know about how he has been involved in anti-party activities,” Patel told mediapersons.He said the BJP had given ticket to Anandiben Patel’s daughter Anar Patel for the Vadodara seat during the Gujarat Assembly elections held last year.“Raghu Sharma, at the behest of BJP, gave ticket to a dentist who was neither a Congress worker nor a social worker. The candidate even lost his deposit,” Patel said.Incidentally, Sharma was the Congress in-charge for Gujarat for the Assembly polls, and had resigned after taking full responsibility for the party’s disastrous performance in elections.“Sharma also called me in Gujarat and said that BJP is giving Rs 6 crore for the Mansa seat. He asked me to pay Rs 10 crore if wanted to contest the elections. When I did not pay him, he got my ticket cancelled,” Patel said.He said that Congress lost in Gujarat only because of Raghu Sharma gave at least 50 per cent tickets to candidates in exchange of crores of rupees,” he said.Patel also said that these people did not even work for the Congress on the ground.“Only because of Sharma, even one of the sitting Congress MLAs resigned from the party. The situation worsened so much that for the first time in the 2022 elections, the Congress candidates in Gujarat lost their deposits,” he said.Patel said that he came to Rajasthan so that the Congress workers come to know about the reality of Sharma and his son Sagar Sharma.“They (father and son) are the most corrupt. They have also implemented ‘Sagar Tax’ in Kekri due to which poor people are suffering. He (Raghu Sharma) minted money by indulging in corruption when he was the Health Minister,” Patel claimed.He also said that people should wake up and hand a crushing defeat to people like Sharma.–IANSarc/dan/arm