Congress claims 'BJP running Operation Lotus in Jharkhand' after MLAs arrested with cash

A day after bundles of cash was recovered from three Jharkhand Congress MLAs in Howrah, the party accused the BJP of running ‘Operation Lotus’ in the state to destabilize the JMM-led coalition government.

Referring to the Maharashtra political crisis that ended with the fall of the Uddhav Thackeray government, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "The game plan of ‘Hum Do’ (Modi-Shah) in Delhi is to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by installing E-D (Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis) duo."

In Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP collapsed last month after a faction of Sena MLAs, led by Eknath Shinde, revolted against party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Shinde, who found tacit support from the BJP, went on to become the Chief Minister with Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. 

Congress has claimed that the saffron party is planning to topple the Jharkhand government in a similar manner as it allegedly did in Maharashtra. 

Congress MLAs arrested with wads of cash

Earlier on Saturday, three Jharkhand Congress MLAs including Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap, and Naman Bixal were apprehended after a huge amount of cash was recovered from their cars in West Bengal's Howrah.

Claiming conspiracy in the cash recovery incident, Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur said, "Everyone saw how Assam became the focal point to topple governments, the drama took place for 15 days and ultimately the Maharashtra govt was toppled... this indicates that there's a conspiracy to destabilise the Jharkhand government as well. Things will be clearer in coming times."

Thakur, however, said the incident is saddening and the state unit will submit a report to the party's high command on the matter. "It won't be reasonable to talk about it till the probe is done, but looking at the country's situation... nabbed MLAs can better explain the matter. However, the incident is saddening. We will submit a report to our high command. No one involved is to be spared," he added.

Following the arrest of the Congress MLAs, Jharkhand BJP said since the formation of the JMM-led government, corruption is rampant in the state. 

"Ever since their government came to power, corruption is on a rise. Earlier too, large amounts of cash were caught in Jharkhand at officers' homes. They use the public's hard-earned money for other purposes. Police caught them and it came to light," Aditya Sahu, Jharkhand BJP state general secretary said.