BJP MP meets Rahul, quits over 'corruption'
A day after he met Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Wardha, BJP lawmaker Ashish Deshmukh on Wednesday resigned from the Maharashtra Assembly, citing alleged corruption in the Rafale deal as the reason.
Deshmukh had on Tuesday announced his decision to quit as MLA and submitted his resignation to the Assembly Speaker on Wednesday.
Deshmukh, who represented the Katol constituency in the Vidrabha region, is likely to join the Congress which he had quit before the assembly polls four years ago, sources close to him said.
In a statement issued Wednesday evening, Deshmukh said schemes such as Make in India, Magnetic Maharashtra (the BJP-led state government's investment summit) and Skill India "showed no results on the ground".
"Also, there is mega corruption in the Rafale deal," he alleged.
Indian political parties have been gunning for Modi over the 2016 purchase of 36 Rafale planes from Dassault Aviation estimated to be worth $8.7 billion, saying he had overpaid for the planes and had not been transparent.
In recent months, the opposition has questioned the government on the choice of billionaire Indian businessman Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as Dassault's local partner instead of a state-run manufacturer with decades of experience.
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