Amid the political upheaval in Jharkhand, liquor bottles were found in government vehicles waiting for the lawmakers in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. The MLAs of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition had arrived in Raipur on Tuesday by a chartered flight in a bid to thwart the BJP’s possible attempt to poach them, and moved into a nearby luxurious resort.

The Chhattisgarh government vehicle (parked outside the Mayfair Resort in Raipur) was seen filled with expensive liquor bottles even before the arrival of the visiting politicians.

Slamming Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, BJP leader Raman Singh tweeted, “The state is not a den of debauchery that feeds Jharkhand’s MLAs with Chhattisgarh’s money.”

After Assam, Haryana, now the camp of MLAs of Jharkhand, for these immoral acts. Chhattisgarh Mahtari will never forgive you.

Another BJP leader, Babulal Marandi, blamed the Chhattisgarh government, saying, “In Jharkhand as well, the entire network of transactions of serving liquor, and money that is arising out of it belongs to Chhattisgarh itself.

Thirty-two MLAs of the ruling UPA in Jharkhand were flown from Ranchi to Congress-governed Chhattisgarh, and eventually to Mayfair Lake Resort near state capital Raipur, amid fears of alleged poaching attempts by the opposition BJP to topple the Hemant Soren government.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who stayed back in Ranchi, said they are “preparing a strategy” to handle the situation.

This is for the third time in the last one-and-a-half years that MLAs of Congress and its allies have been shifted to Raipur amid fears of poaching by the BJP.

In June, fearing cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election, the main opposition Congress in Haryana had shifted its MLAs to Raipur to protect them from an alleged poaching bid.

Candidates of the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), a member of the Congress-led grand alliance during the last year’s Assam Assembly polls, were similarly brought to Raipur in April 2021 ahead of counting of votes.

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