Bribe CD in Parliament was part of TV sting

Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of the television channel CNN-IBN, whose organisation filmed the controversial tape, showing three Members of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh accepting money from members of the ruling alliance, told rediff.com that two reporters have been working on the story for the last ten days and the channel's investigations had not been completed when Bharatiya Janata Party jumped the gun and leaked out details of the tapes to mediapersons at the BJP office in Parliament House.

BJP President Rajnath Singh said the UPA government had no moral authority to continue in office and hence Prime Minister Dr Manmohan should resign.

Bribe money allegations rock Lok Sabha

Railway Minister Lalu Yadav alleged that this was engineered by BJP leader L K Advani and claimed that all allegations against the UPA government were fake. "Yeh sab farzi hai," he said as he walked into Parliament House only to return with Pappu Yadav who alleged that he had been approached by a senior BJP leader to vote against the UPA government.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee revealed to members that Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal wanted to resign because of what happened in the House. "It is a black day in the history of the House. I have got the CD. I will take a decision on the matter and nobody found to be involved will be spared," the Speaker told Parliament.

Alliance in crisis