'Amar Singh event manager in cash-for-votes'

Terming the cash-for-votes scandal as "mother of all scams", senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday demanded that a special investigation team be set up to find out who was the beneficiary.

Naidu said that former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, recently arrested in the case, was "an event manager" and not the beneficiary.

"It was ridiculous and shameful that BJP members of Parliament, who were (tried to be) lured, showed the money to uphold the dignity of the Parliament, but they were victimised," Naidu said, talking to newsmen in Hyderabad.

"Truth should come out as to what was the source of the money, who carried and transported it and who were the beneficiaries," he said.

The BJP MPs should be felicitated for bringing out the truth before the Parliament, he said.

Alleging that United Progressive Alliance government was mired in multiple scams, Naidu said senior party leader L K Advani's proposed rath yatra against corruption was for creating awareness and increasing the pressure on the Centre.

Reacting to Congress leader Digvijay Singh's allegation that Naidu and fellow BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had "business ties" with arrested mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy of Karnataka, Naidu said, "If Digvijaya Singh has the courage, let him get an inquiry ordered into it. If he fails (to prove it) he should be sent to mental asylum, as suggested by Anna Hazare."