Congress Putting Election Seats Up for Sale, Creating New Avenues of Corruption: M Swaraj

Thiruvananthapuram: CPI(M) state secretariat member M Swaraj on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party, alleging that its national leadership had taken to selling legislative seats as a means of generating funds after losing power at the Centre. Speaking at a press conference, Swaraj said Congress had opened "a new chapter of corruption" by putting up assembly seats, parliamentary constituencies, and Rajya Sabha berths for sale.

Swaraj's remarks centred on an alleged "election ticket-selling" scam that has emerged from Haryana, involving senior Congress figures at the national level. According to a complaint filed by Gaurav Kumar, husband of former Haryana Mahila Congress state general secretary Suchitra Devi, Congress national leaders accepted approximately seven crore rupees after promising his wife an assembly seat for the state elections. A police case has since been registered in connection with the complaint.

The accused include three prominent Congress leaders — Priyanka Gandhi, K C Venugopal, and Kodikunnil Suresh. Swaraj also referred to the allegation that both the leaders themselves and their personal assistants directly received money as part of the transaction.

Lending weight to the allegations, reports emerged that both Priyanka Gandhi and K C Venugopal had temporarily relieved their personal assistants of their duties following the controversy — a move Swaraj characterised as tantamount to an admission of guilt. "This is an open confession that money was received through the personal assistants," he said at the press conference.

In the case of the third accused, Swaraj alleged that money was deposited into accounts belonging to the leader himself, his son, and his personal assistant. Gaurav Kumar reportedly released WhatsApp chat records and documentary evidence of bank transfers to substantiate his complaint.

Drawing from a broader historical frame, Swaraj argued that Congress had a long record of corruption dating back decades, noting that the Malayalam word kumbhakonam — denoting a large-scale scam — was first applied by the Malayalam press in reference to Congress-linked scandals during the party's years in power at centre. He contended that losing power had not ended corruption within the party, but merely redirected it toward new avenues of financial extraction.

"This is no longer merely an allegation," Swaraj said. "The evidence before the country today — WhatsApp chats, bank transaction records — confirms this as fact."