On Saturday night, BJP catches Jogi with his cash down

Jaitley claimed Jogi told the leaders that he had Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s mandate to do this.

At a press conference in Raipur, Jaitley played an audiotape of a conversation between Jogi and vice president of the BJP state unit Virender Pandey in which Jogi is apparently heard offering Rs 20 lakh as the first pay-off.

Pandey, sitting next to Jaitley at the press conference, alleged that the first pay-off was received in the morning. And the second—he did not mention how much—was personally delivered by Jogi who drove in an unnumbered vehicle driven by his son Amit Jogi late this evening.

Jaitley also released a letter Jogi had written extending the support of 37 MLAs—the BJP has 50 in the 90-member House—to the ‘‘breakaway’’ BJP group led by BJP MP Baliram Kashyap.

The letter is addressed to Governor, Lt General (rtd) K M Seth.

A sheepish Jogi had little room to hide. He denied that it was his voice on the tape but admitted he did write the letter. His argument: Pandey had told him that they wanted to instal Kashyap as ‘‘an Adivasi Chief Minister.’’

Jogi also admitted that he did not get the central leadership’s OK before writing that note claiming he tried to contact Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel but ‘‘could not talk to them.’’

‘‘It’s a water-tight case. It’s a case of corruption almost similar of that of bribing Jharkhand MPs by the previous Congress government at the time of the no-confidence motion,’’ Jaitley said.

Jaitley named three accused in the case: P.R. Khunte, a BJP MP who defected to the Congress before the Assembly polls, Jogi himself—both public servants—and Jogi’s son Amit. A rattled AICC general secretary Ambika Soni, Congress announced in New Delhi that Jogi had been suspended from the party ‘‘till the time there is an inquiry into the veracity of the tape.’’

Reminding the Law Minister of the tape showing Dilip Singh Judeo accepting money in a hotel room, Soni said: ‘‘If Arun Jaitley is talking of this tape now, the people have a right to know what happened to another tape on which a Central minister of the BJP was found accepting money and was seen on the tape?’’

‘‘Whether a person is small or big in stature, the law of the land must apply evenly to everyone,’’ she said. ‘‘The Law Minister must give an answer why no action has been taken in the Judeo tape episode.’’

What seems to have infuriated the Congress in Delhi is the reference to party president Sonia Gandhi. According to the tape, the alleged manipulations of Jogi had ‘‘the authorisation of Gandhi.’’ Sources said the sting had the OK from the party’s national leadership. It was in the afternoon itself that national general secretary (organisation) Sanjay Joshi, who is camping in Raipur for the inaugural tomorrow, informed party chief M Venkaiah Naidu that Jogi had been ‘‘caught’’ on tape.

Joshi, sources said, was reluctant to go public given the ‘‘legal and political implications.’’ A reserved pracharak, he suggested that the task of briefing the media be assigned to an ace hand. It was at this stage that Naidu deputed Jaitley.The tape comes shortly before Prime Minister Vajpayee makes a statement in Parliament on PSUs.