Officials said the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police claimed to have unearthed a conspiracy in the floor test of the NDA government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on February 12, 2024.
"There was an attempt to buy JD(U) MLAs to vote against the Nitish Kumar-led government during the trust vote," EOU officials quoted.
Many of them received advance payments, the report said, as part of a package deal to influence their voting.
The payments were allegedly made so that they would vote for the Opposition-led Grand Alliance, which would have been disastrous for the NDA government.
According to this, it was said that persons from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Nepal were involved in the conspiracy, and if the government had lost the trust vote, the complete amount was going to be paid to the MLAs through hawala transactions across various states.
DIG Police EOU, Manavjeet Singh Dhillon, told that the police have found evidence of a money trail relating to the attempt at horse-trading.
"The EOU has placed its report before the ED for further investigation into possible money laundering activities. The case had been earlier registered at Kotwali police station on 11 February, that is, a day before the floor test," Dhillon added.
The probing continues, and the revelations from EOU point towards serious attempts at manipulating the political process in Bihar.
The whole exercise is going to throw up further political acrimony in the state and raise several question marks over the supposed stranglehold of external forces on the governance of the state.
Floor test for NDA Government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is to be conducted on February 12, 2024, in Bihar after a great deal of controversy, charges of horse trading, and an attempt to destabilize the government.
An issue with momentum took shape a day ahead of that, on February 11, when Sudhanshu Shekhar, MLA from Harlakhi in Madhubani of Janata Dal (United), lodged a complaint with the Kotwali police station of Patna, alleging two other MLAs had kidnapped him and offered Rs 10 crore to buy him off as part of the plot.
Shekhar specifically termed MLAs Bima Bharti and Dilip Rai kidnappers.
He also alleged that an attempt was made to buy the loyalty of quite a few MLAs, himself included, by dishing out money and even the offer of ministership.
He mentioned a host of other MLAs, even one from his own party, Sanjeev Kumar accused him of being a party to this horse-trading racket.
On the day of the floor test, three JD-U MLAs including Bima Bharti attended the Assembly late and were unable to participate in the election of Speaker.
It seriously dented the Nitish Kumar-led government which treated it seriously
Case was passed on to EOU for proper investigation.
Interestingly, during the floor test, three MLAs from RJD— Prahlad Yadav, Neelam Devi, and Chetan Anand— were seen supporting the ruling NDA, and Nitish Kumar tightened his government.
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