Sapkal demands arrest of Shindes over audio clip; MP Waghmare calls it childish

Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal has targeted the BJP. He said the audio clip played by Manoj Jarange Patil had made clear how scheming the BJP is. "See how people are bought," Sapkal said. The names in the clip include Shinde and Shinde's son. Sapkal demanded that they be arrested and an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe be ordered immediately.

Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MP Jyoti Waghmare hit back. She said a demand for arrests on the basis of an audio clip was childish. Dr Waghmare called Sapkal's allegations meaningless and baseless. According to her, the demand raised questions about Sapkal's understanding and intellectual ability. She asked whether Sapkal was in his right mind.

Waghmare said that in the viral audio clip of Jarange, an unknown third person is spreading a rumour that Shrikant Shinde gave Rs 500 crore. In her view, demanding an arrest outright, with no evidence and only an alleged clip, is not right.

She asked Sapkal what would happen if someone recorded another clip tomorrow and claimed that Harshwardhan Sapkal had been given not Rs 500 crore, which she said was beyond his worth, but Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000. Should she, too, then demand his arrest? Waghmare said the Congress should answer this childish argument. She alleged that baseless charges were being made to save the post of Congress state president. She said a person with no claim to the post was showering allegations only to stay in the headlines and save his political existence.

Waghmare described Eknath Shinde as a people's leader. In her words, Shrikant Shinde and the respected Eknath Shinde are mass leaders who rule people's hearts and can tell right from wrong. She said such baseless and frivolous allegations could never tarnish the image of a popular leader like Shinde.

In the same statement, Sapkal also raised the issue of farmers. He said the Fadnavis government had treated farmers in such a way that, as the saying goes, the king turned generous and handed them a pumpkin. He demanded a complete loan waiver for farmers and a grant of Rs 1 lakh per hectare. According to Sapkal, there could be large-scale migration in the kharif season, so the old employment guarantee scheme should be restarted at once.

On law and order, Sapkal asked whether Lawrence Bishnoi is the government's son-in-law. He alleged that the Maharashtra Chief Minister had opened the doors for this gang. He said gang wars had stopped, but attacks were now happening under the government's nose. Sapkal said Maharashtra's government was being run not by Pandu Hawaldar but by Ghashiram Kotwal. He challenged Fadnavis to bring Bishnoi from Gujarat and keep him in the egg cell of Arthur Road jail if he had the courage.

On Parliament, Sapkal said discussion of the mention of Epstein had been suppressed. According to him, action was taken across the world against those named in the file, but Modi is protecting Hardeep Puri even though his name came up in a morally unsavoury case. He also said Om Birla does not allow any discussion on the Election Commission. He said an impeachment motion had been moved earlier and, when it was accepted, the Vice President had to resign, and he hoped Om Birla would not face a similar situation.