The Congress has suffered a major political loss after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral triumph in the three key states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as well as strengthen its position in Telangana where the Congress party has managed to defeat the incumbent K. Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi government.
The defeat of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s administration in Chhattisgarh has now been mocked by the winning party using the Mahadev app scam which grabbed a lot of headlines lately. Reacting to the phenomenal performance of his party, Youth Affairs and Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the Modi government Anurag Singh Thakur stated, “Mahadev ka shraap, Congress saaf,” which means that the Congress party lost in the three states including Chhattisgarh because of Lord Mahadev’s curse.
He pointed out that the Chhattisgarh administration helmed by the Congress had broken its promises while in office. While addressing the BJP’s exceedingly impressive election tally in the assembly elections, he highlighted that everyone in the region was aware that they could engage in corruption and then pay off Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. He called this strategy the “Bhupe campaign” a pun on the name of the chief minister and the online payment service PhonePe.
He charged that the state of Chhattisgarh became an ATM for the Congress party and one scam after another tarnished the name of the chief minister and the Congress party. Notably, the BJP has recorded outstanding numbers since late morning on the day of the results, 3rd December, even though the counting of votes is still ongoing in some constituencies.
On 15 November during the election campaign, Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah accused CM Bhupesh Baghel of defaming Lord Mahadev by naming the controversial betting app after him. “If they had to engage in betting, they could have done it in the name of Bhupesh Baghel. Why did he use the name Mahadev,” he had asked at a rally in Chhattisgarh.
Mahadev App and its link with Bhupesh Baghel
The Mahadev app is an illicit online betting platform that laundered the money it collected from players who aren’t in India. Four individuals, including primary accused Saurabh Chandrakar and Madhya Pradesh’s Ravi Uppal, developed the Mahadev betting software which progressively supplanted at least ten other similar illegal betting apps that were in widespread usage across the nation.
A few of the apps that were formerly a part of the Mahadev betting fold are Lotus 365 and ReddyAnna. India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan are all connected to Mahadev Online Book (MOB) through its headquarters in the United Arab Emirates.
According to new evidence gleaned from a search operation on 2nd November, the Mahadev app promoters had previously made regular payments to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and as of 3rd November, they paid him around Rs 508 crore. The information was disclosed by the Enforcement Directorate which is looking into the Mahadev app fraud for possible money laundering activities.
Credible tips were received by the national agency which on 2nd November successfully carried out search operations in Chhattisgarh which resulted in the seizure of Rs 5.39 crore in cash in the state.
