Das offered Rs 100 cr for return to RS: Mayawati

Das hit back, saying that Mayawati takes Rs 50 lakh to offer a ticket in a reserved Assembly constituency and Rs 1 crore in a general constituency.

BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday said that Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Das, who resigned from the party two days ago, had offered her Rs 100 crore to renominate him to the Upper House. Das hit back, saying that Mayawati takes Rs 50 lakh to offer a ticket in a reserved Assembly constituency and Rs 1 crore in a general constituency.

“Akhilesh Das met me in Delhi and pleaded that there is no one for him except me. He said that money is required to run a party, especially when the party is not in power, and offered to give Rs 100 crore to the party fund if I repeated him in Rajya Sabha. But I said I will not repeat him in the interest of the party even if he offered Rs 200 crore,” said Mayawati when asked about Das’s resignation.

She claimed that the BSP is run by the “small contributions” made by party workers and supporters from their “hard-earned money” and not from the wealth of businessmen, industrialists and capitalists — the way BJP, Congress and other parties function.

She said that Das had come to BSP from the Congress and had levelled serious allegations against Congress and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at that time. “He asked me to trust him. He said, ‘If you will have mercy of sending me to RS, I will work to connect Vaishya community to the BSP’. I sent him to RS but he not only failed to connect the Vaishya community with the BSP, he did not even attend Parliament sessions,” she said.

Later in the day, Das said he did not offer any money to Mayawati. “It was a talk between me and her, so it cannot be proved if I offered money or she demanded it. But everyone knows about the BSP in the country and even in America,” he said.

Das claimed that Mayawati takes Rs 50 lakh from each candidate for a ticket from a reserved constituency and Rs 1 crore from candidates contesting from general seats. “This is how candidates are being decided for 2017 Assembly polls. Before elections in Maharashtra and Haryana too, each MLA and MP was asked to give Rs 10 lakh but I did not give it,” he said.