Bhopal: Accusing the Kamal Nath government of targeting BJP leaders on the pretext of anti-mafia drive, Bharatiya Janata Party protested across Madhya Pradesh on Friday. The Congress hit back at the BJP, saying that the anti-mafia drive will now move to the towns.
Senior BJP leaders protested at district party headquarters, alleging partisan and mala fide action by the Congress on the pretext of anti-mafia drive in the state. Following the protests, senior leaders and party workers courted arrest in several districts.
BJP state president Rakesh Singh, former Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and others courted arrest in Indore.
Earlier while addressing the party workers, Singh said that they had heard about different kinds of terrors but they had never known about state sponsored intimidation as witnessed in Madhya Pradesh.
Mahajan said she hadn’t witnessed such political vendetta in her life. Commoners and BJP workers are being harassed on the pretext of anti-mafia action, Mahajan alleged.
BJP on Thursday had also threatened to prepare its own list of mafias, saying that the list would be handed over to CM Kamal Nath for action.
Meanwhile, Congress has also chalked out a strategy to counter the BJP campaign and party ministers are being instructed to hold press briefings in various districts to clear the air on the drive.
Public Relations minister PC Sharma on Friday alleged that 11 types of mafia activities have flourished in 15 years BJP rule in the state. These include – land mafia, extortion, liquor, drug, adulteration, chit fund, land grab, blackmail, mining, transport and co-operative sector mafia.
Citing example of sand mafia activities, Sharma said the revenue from sand mining in 2018 was Rs 243 crore but recent auctions of mining contracts under Congress government fetched close to Rs 1,300 cr.
“We have acted against 615 land mafia, 694 liquor mafia, 65 co-operative sector mafia, 150 adulteration mafia, 149 extortion mafia and even penalised 1053 errant vehicles of transport mafia,” Sharma said.
Sharma added that he had visited small towns like Harda and Hoshanagbad, where locals had urged him to initiate anti-mafia drive in their region as well. “We have acted against mafia in major cities and would shortly start the drive in smaller cities and town as well,” affirmed the minister.
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