Graft charge against CM heats up high-stakes electoral contest

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress over charges that Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was paid ₹508 crore by promoters of the Mahadev betting app, as the controversy over the explosive allegations intensified on Saturday and the Congress called it a ploy to tarnish the state government days before assembly polls commence.

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The controversy broke late on Friday after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that an email statement from a suspect in the alleged Mahadev betting app scam revealed that promoters of the operation paid bribes worth ₹508 crore to Baghel, and that cash worth ₹5.39 crore seized by them on Thursday from a hotel in Raipur was being delivered for the Congress party's poll expenditure.

"The Congress government in Chhattisgarh has not spared any chance to loot you. They have not even spared the name of Mahadev.

Just two days ago, a major action was taken in Raipur and a huge pile of cash was recovered. People are saying that this is the money belonging to sattebaj (those involved in betting) and they have collected it by looting the poor and youth of Chhattisgarh...." Modi said at an election rally in Durg.

In the media, it is being published that the money is linked to him, the PM said, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Baghel. "The Congress government and the chief minister should tell the people of Chhattisgarh what link they have with the accused in this scam sitting in Dubai," Modi added.

Chhattisgarh goes to the polls in two phases beginning November 7. The Congress is attempting to stave off a challenge from the BJP.

In a press conference in Delhi, Union minister Smriti Irani alleged that this money had come through hawala channels from Dubai after looting the poor.