Cong's sting: Kailash Joshi selling Bhopal ticket for Rs one crore

BHOPAL: State Congress on Thursday claimed to have conducted a sting operation on former chief minister and two-term BJP MP from Bhopal, Kailash Joshi, allegedly telling a party worker over telephone to pay up Rs 1 crore if he wanted the ticket from Bhopal.

Even as BJP veteran leader LK Advani issued a statement on Thursday evening that he will contest from Gandhinagar thereby putting an end to all speculation about his candidature from Bhopal, the Congress came up with a CD and has raked up fresh controversy about the BJP's candidate selection for Bhopal constituency.

The CD showed Kailash Joshi sitting in his drawing room with BJP leader Shailendra Pradhan and speaking on his phone. AICC secretary Rakesh Kalia conducted a press conference to allege that the BJP was selling tickets and it has been exposed.

Reacting to the Congress' allegation, state BJP president Narendra Singh Tomar, in a statement, said that the Congress is suffering from acute mental trauma before the Lok Sabha elections and therefore have tried to malign the image of a veteran leader, who is considered to be like a 'sant' (priest) in politics. Tomar argued that because of such activities, people of Madhya Pradesh have kept the Congress out of power for over a decade. He advised that the Congress focus on issues instead of wasting time on smear campaigns.