Controversy over BJP's Ranchi office

A Jharkhand Hindi daily kicked up a controversy today by publishing a report that the BJP office had allegedly flouted norms and that a shop was functioning in the premises which had no parking space.

Seizing upon this, Union tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahay alleged that the BJP-led government was trying to give legal cover to its party office through an ordinance.

"On one hand the government is trying to legalise the BJP office which has also flouted RRDA (Ranchi Rural Development Authority) rules, while on the other hand it has uprooted dwellings of the poor in the garb of an anti-encroachment drive," Sahay told a press conference here.

"The government should immediately rehabilitate the families living under the open sky," Sahay said.

Rejecting the allegations, BJP’s state unit President Dineshanand Goswami told a hurriedly convened press conference that the party office was situated in the premises of the 'Antyodaya Foundation Trust', which was a non-commercial structure having neither a basement nor a shop.

"We also have parking space," Goswami clarified.