‘Congress has to pay for fuel, liquor to win Singhbhum’: Ally JMM’s MLA

The grand alliance (GA) led by the Congress was rocked by the comments of a JMM legislator in a video that the Congress will have to bear the cost of the campaign by providing liquor, diesel and petrol if it wants to win the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat.

In the video, the JMM legislator from Chakradharpur Sashibhushan Samad tells a local news channel that Congress had neither organizational strength nor the network needed in Singhbhum to win the Lok Sabha seat and if it wished to do so, it would have to pay for diesel, petrol and liquor.

“Otherwise, we’ll go to sleep after casting our votes. Why would we tell our party workers to sweat it out , if we get nothing for our efforts?” said Samad. “They should provide money to run the campaign. You know, people in these parts won’t go out to vote if you don’t give them Hariya (country liquor)”, the JMM KMLA said on Wednesday.

Samad’s comment came even as Congress candidate Geeta Koda, wife of Madhu Koda, the former CM and an accused in a multi-million mining scam, was being welcomed at the Congress Bhawan in another part of Chaibasa town. Samad could not be contacted despite repeated calls made to his mobile, while his PA said he was busy in a meeting of an assembly committee.

JMM MLA from Chaibasa, Deepak Birua, refused to comment on the video saying that it was Samad’s personal opinion.

The deputy commissioner of West Singhbhum said an inquiry is underway and appropriate action will be taken under the model code of conduct, after the report is completed.