Priyank harks back to old video clip on ‘fund raising’ to hit out at BJP

Launching a counter-attack at BJP MP B.Y. Raghavendra, who accused the Congress Ministers of “extorting” officials in Karnataka to raise funds for Congress campaign in the Bihar polls, IT/BT and RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge on Tuesday shared an old video clip showing a conversation between the late BJP leader Ananth Kumar with veteran leader B.S. Yediyurappa in which both are purportedly discussing fund raising issues.

In a social media post, Mr. Kharge alleged that both the BJP leaders had then discussed about payment of ₹1,800 crore to the party high command. “Have the BJP leaders forgotten now about this clip in which Mr. Ananth Kumar and Mr. Yediyurappa discussed about paying ₹1,800 crore to the party high command and the contents of the video clip becoming public then?… It is better for Mr. Raghavendra to hear his father’s conversation again and then decide on making comments on the Congress dispensation,” Mr. Priyank Kharge remarked.

He further said, “It was the BJP leaders themselves who said that it would cost ₹2,500 crore in the BJP to become CM and ₹60 to 70 crore to become Ministers.”

Taking exception to this, BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra told presspersons in Bengaluru that Mr. Priyank Kharge was talking without knowing the context in which the BJP leaders were talking. Taking a dig at Mr. Priyank Kharge, he said the Minister had become isolated in his own party after he started targeting the RSS “repeatedly and unnecessarily”.