india

Updated: Jul 20, 2019 08:13 IST

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday said the Centre and its agencies should set up an inquiry into the wealth of the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The comment came a day after the Income Tax department attached a plot belonging to her brother, Anand Kumar, and his wife, Vichiter Lata. The property, in Noida, is worth Rs. 400 crore.

The provisional order for the attachment of the seven-acre plot, ‘beneficially owned’ by Kumar and Lata, was issued on July 16 by the Delhi-based Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) of the I-T department.

Accusing BJP of ‘targeting her family’, Mayawati said, “The movable and immovable assets of BJP leaders when they joined politics and the property they own now must be looked into.”

“The BJP leaders have become rich overnight, but the party leadership justifies their wealth. The leaders of the saffron brigade become uneasy when people from deprived sections of the society move forward. They misuse government machinery to settle caste enmity,” the former UP chief minister said in a statement.

“During the recently held Lok Sabha election Rs. 2,000 crore was deposited into the account of the BJP — the fact not revealed to the country was from where did the BJP get the funds,” Mayawati said. She alleged the BJP spent money to buy votes in the April-May Lok Sabha elections.

UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, however refuted Mayawati’s allegations. In a statement, Maurya said there was no justification for Mayawati and her family accumulating a wealth of Rs. 400 crore. He said Mayawati had accumulated wealth by selling votes of backward classes and on being caught she was trying to use them as a shield.