MP denies making Rajya Sabha seat sale claims

IANS/Chandigarh/New Delhi

Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader in Harayana, Birender Singh, yesterday backtracked on a statement he made hours earlier that certain people were paying Rs1bn to “buy” a seat in the upper house of parliament.

The Congress MP at a public rally claimed that he knew the names of 20 people who had “paid” to get into the Rajya Sabha.

“Not one, but I will give you names of 20 (such) people,” Birender Singh said while addressing a gathering in Yamunanagar town in Haryana on Sunday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed the Congress over Singh’s remarks.

Reacting to Singh’s remarks, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said it was tacit admission that “in Congress they are selling tickets”.

“The Congress is synonymous with corruption,” Javadekar alleged.

Singh was a Congress national general secretary till recently and was tipped to become a union minister in the last cabinet reshuffle. However, his name was taken off the list at the last minute. Singh said on Sunday that a Rajya Sabha member “had told me that his budget to become a Rajya Sabha member was Rs1bn.

“He later told me that his work was done in Rs800mn and he saved Rs200mn,” Singh claimed.

Singh refused to name the MP and questioned the fate of politics if more such people had entered the Rajya Sabha.

“You make a guess yourself. When people are successful in getting Rajya Sabha membership by investing Rs1bn, what will they think of the poor,” Birender Singh told the gathering.

However, the Congress MP backtracked on his statement later, saying that he never made the remarks. “I have not given any statement on these lines,” Singh said in Chandigarh yesterday.