Samajwadi party MLA Kishore Samrite with the Rs 10 lakh “bribe”. Picture by Saeed Faruqui

Bhopal, March 19: A Samajwadi Party MLA has alleged that wads of crisp Rs 1000 notes were flashed at him to buy his support for a Rajya Sabha poll candidate.

Kishore Samrite claimed that Congress party managers offered him that amount as “advance” to support its nominee Vivek Tankha, a former state advocate-general.

Displaying the notes arranged neatly on a table at the MLA guest house, Samrite said he first got a call from former Congress minister Rajendra Singh, followed by a visit from N.L. Prajapati, a close associate of state Congress chief Suresh Pachauri.

Prajapati apparently offered him Rs 10 lakh in cash. “He told me the money he had brought was ‘advance’ for supporting Tankha during the polls and I would be given the remaining amount later,” Samrite said.

He claimed leader of Opposition Jamuna Devi, too, had offered him money to support Tankha in the March 28 polls.

Terming the allegation “concocted”, an angry Congress stalled the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.

Tankha has threatened legal action against Samrite and pointed a finger at his “criminal past”. He said he had recommended legal action against the MLA as advocate-general in the Digvijay Singh regime and Samrite was trying to get even by defaming him.

There are over 40 cases against Samrite, including murder, loot, kidnapping, criminal intimidation and assaulting government officials on duty.

Last year, he won a bypoll from the Lanji Assembly segment, wresting the seat from the BJP. He was in jail throughout the election campaign but managed to relegate the Congress to third spot.

The ruling BJP has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Maya Singh, national secretary Prabhat Jha and Raghunandan Sharma for the three seats falling vacant in the upper House next month. It has 166 MLAs in the 230-member Assembly but requires 174 votes to win all three seats.

The Congress has 41 MLAs. Tankha is counting on support from the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and smaller parties who have 17 votes, enough to see him through to the upper House.

The eight-member Samajwadi party is a divided house. The party has issued a whip in favour of Tankha but at least three MLAs, including Samrite, intend to defy it.