Gadkari owns Adarsh flat by proxy: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday sought to put Bharatiya Janata Party in the dock in the Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society scam alleging that one of its beneficiaries is "very very close" to BJP President Nitin Gadkari, triggering strong protests from the main Opposition.

"While raising the Adarsh issue, they are not taking the name Suresh Prabhu, who was a minister in the National Democratic Alliance regime or Sancheti who is supposed to be very very close to the BJP president Nitin Gadkari. According to reports, Sancheti, whose monthly salary is just Rs 8,600 has purchased a flat worth Rs 60 lakh in the housing society. There is speculation in media that Sancheti is a proxy for Gadkari," Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed told mediapeesons.

Reacting sharply to Ahmed's remarls, BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar dubbed the allegations as baseless and threatened to take legal action against the Congress leader if the charges were not proved within 72 hours.

Ahmed, however, sought to claim high moral ground for his party on the corruption issues and accused BJP of practicing "double standards" in the matter.

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan resigned after the controversy in Adarsh case. Similarly, Suresh Kalmadi had to resign from the post of Congress parliamentary party secretary after the controversy on Commonwealth Games," said Ahmed. "The BJP should explain what action it proposes against its senior leaders Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Tarlochan Singh who were defending Kalmadi and are seen in television footages with the Commonwealth Organising Committee chairman. They should also spell out their stand on Sancheti and Suresh Prabhu."

The Congress spokesperson alleged that BJP is practising double standards on the issue of corruption and questioned the main opposition party "Why they did not demand that investigations in these cases should also include these aspects," Ahmed said.