Congress trying to blame Rijiju for its sins: BJP

New Delhi:Rejecting graft charges against Kiren Rijiju as “baseless”, BJP today said Congress was trying to blame the Union Minister for its “sins” as it was in power at the Centre as well as in Arunachal Pradesh when the project under question was sanctioned.

The party said Congress and its “friend”, a reference to the vigilance officer who has flagged the alleged corruption involving Rijiju, had conspired to smear its name as the opposition party had not been able to find a single case of corruption in its two-and-a-half years of rule at the Centre.

BJP National Secretary Shrikant Sharma also insisted that the contractor, who is at the centre of allegations, is not Rijiju’s cousin as alleged.

“It is a completely baseless charge. Congress and its friends have hatched a conspiracy to target BJP as they have not been able to find a single case of corruption against our government.

“The said project was sanctioned in 2005 when Congress was in power at the Centre as well as in the state,” he said.

The letter written by Rijiju to Power Minister Piyush Goyal was meant to help subcontractors involved in the project as their dues were not cleared, Sharma said.

Congress today demanded the sacking of Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleging his “involvement” in the “Rs 450-crore Arunachal power scam” and said the Prime Minister’s “tall claims” of bringing transparency have “fallen flat”.

“I pity Congress party … I feel that Congress should apologise to the nation for creating an issue which is non-existent. If local people have approached me to tell me that bills are pending and the bills are of small amount and what they are saying of Rs 150 crores, it is not like that,” Rijiju said.

“Small pending bills, pending since 2012, 2013, 2014 before we came to power, the contracts were awarded when we were not in the government, the payments were paid when we were not in the government. Only I was told that some 20-30 per cent of payments were remaining which NEEPCO is not releasing the money. So I wrote a letter to the Power Minister that just look into the matter, thats it,” the Minister said.