‘Rs 100 crore for a Rajya Sabha seat’
31 July 2013 5:04 AM IST
There is more than what meets the eye behind the statement by senior Congress leader Chaudhary Birender Singh that there are people who shell out up to Rs 100 crore to get a Rajya Sabha seat. A known Gandhi-family loyalist, Singh was dropped as party general secretary in the last reshuffle of Congress office bearers.
Singh was shown the door despite helping Congress wrest power in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Having kicked up a controversy with his claim that people shell out up to Rs 100 crore to get a Rajya Sabha seat, the veteran from Haryana, who is the grandson of legendary Jat leader Sir Chotu Ram, had high command emissaries contacting him.
As the BJP latched on to his remarks to accuse the Congress of being in the habit of ‘cutting deals’ and having brought politics in the country to such a ‘low level’, Singh, on getting the ears of the high command, issued the customary statement blaming the media for quoting him out of context.
A rival of Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Singh was excise minister in Haryana between 2005 and 2010. He, however, lost the last assembly polls and blamed the chief minister for orchestrating his defeat. His proximity to the high command, however, ensured that he got a berth at the centre.
He was upset at being dropped unceremoniously as the office bearer.
What made Singh bitter was that his fall coincided with rise of the Hooda clan, including son Depender, whose stock has been rising in the eyes of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Addressing a rally in Jind on Sunday, the Congress leader had said, ‘Once someone told me that he had a budget of Rs 100 crore to become a Rajya Sabha MP.
But when he totalled the expenditure later, he found it was Rs 80 crore and he had ended up saving
Rs 20 crore.’
Singh was shown the door despite helping Congress wrest power in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Having kicked up a controversy with his claim that people shell out up to Rs 100 crore to get a Rajya Sabha seat, the veteran from Haryana, who is the grandson of legendary Jat leader Sir Chotu Ram, had high command emissaries contacting him.
As the BJP latched on to his remarks to accuse the Congress of being in the habit of ‘cutting deals’ and having brought politics in the country to such a ‘low level’, Singh, on getting the ears of the high command, issued the customary statement blaming the media for quoting him out of context.
A rival of Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Singh was excise minister in Haryana between 2005 and 2010. He, however, lost the last assembly polls and blamed the chief minister for orchestrating his defeat. His proximity to the high command, however, ensured that he got a berth at the centre.
He was upset at being dropped unceremoniously as the office bearer.
What made Singh bitter was that his fall coincided with rise of the Hooda clan, including son Depender, whose stock has been rising in the eyes of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Addressing a rally in Jind on Sunday, the Congress leader had said, ‘Once someone told me that he had a budget of Rs 100 crore to become a Rajya Sabha MP.
But when he totalled the expenditure later, he found it was Rs 80 crore and he had ended up saving
Rs 20 crore.’
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