BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy at the news meet in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Aug. 29: The BJP is more concerned about “Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss” than the daily expenditure of Rs 6 crore for running Parliament, party leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said here on Wednesday.

“We have stalled both the houses of Parliament on the allotment of 142 coal blocks to companies, including private ones, which caused an accumulative loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore. Some people say that Rs 6 crore, which is being spent on Parliament everyday, is going down the drains as Parliament is being stalled. But we are much more concerned about the Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss to the country according to the CAG report because of faulty coal blocks allotment,” Rudy told reporters here.

A licensed pilot, Rudy arrived at Patna airport in the afternoon by flying an aircraft. He said the BJP — being the “watchdog” as the principal opposition party — would not hesitate a bit to protest if the country’s coffers are filled the way the CAG report had pointed out. Referring to the 2G telecom case to drive home his point, he said the party had stalled the winter session of Parliament in 2010 when the scam issue cropped up. Union minister Kapil Sibal had held that there was zero loss in the 2G spectrum allotment, while Union finance minister P. Chidambaram had said the loss shown in the (2G) scam was completely imaginary.

The licences were issued to the telecom companies on first-come-first-serve basis in 2008 at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore but after cancellation of the allotment, the Union cabinet has now fixed Rs 14,000 crore as reserve price for the same spectrum, Rudy said. He added that the government was expected to gain Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh crore from auction.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave clean chits to former ministers A. Raja in the 2G scam and Suresh Kalmadi in the CWG scam, Rudy said, adding: “Now, he is giving a clean chit to himself.”