The Congress upped the ante on Wednesday with a full-throated attack on Mr. Shah, saying he is in the business of wrecking democracy to win over the other side with some very generous inducements. The charge has some weight to it with reports of Rs 15 crore being offered to MPs in Maharashtra, and you have the kind of shuffling in the Trinamool Congress in Bengal to make for an interesting story.
What triggered the charge
If you ask Congress man Jairam Ramesh, this is all part of an ongoing effort by the Home Minister to make up for a loss of face in Parliament. Ramesh says Shah has been on the offensive ever since 17 April 2026, when he could not get his delimitation bills through in the Lok Sabha.
Ramesh describes the outreach as cold and calculated. In his view, Shah is waging a campaign of pure cynicism, with incentives doled out like some kind of made-to-order mutual fund. “There are no bounds to it,” he says, though he is quick to add it will come to naught in the end.
Alleged inducements and the Opposition’s worry
You have to see where the Congress is coming from: they are worried these defections will undo the hard work of the last few years in ousting the BJP. Ramesh has some who were put in office on an anti-BJP ticket just two years back now looking to jump ship. He puts the numbers down as mind-boggling.
In a post in Hindi, Ramesh made the point that the Opposition has been under fire, and only more so after 17 April 2026. His read is that the people in power are after the leaders who ran on an anti-BJP plank to empty out the room for the Opposition.
Claims of cash offers in Maharashtra
Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena-UBT made some noise on Tuesday, alleging that an advance of Rs 15 crore was on the table for any MP in the state willing to make a switch. That has stoked the idea that a few of their own in the Lok Sabha might be ready to go their separate ways.
Then there was Raut’s hasty visit to Delhi, which has people wondering if he was to see Speaker Om Birla and put a stop to any move by a coterie of Sena-UBT MPs for their own recognition. A top dog in the ruling Shiv Sena has let on they wouldn’t say no to a defector or two, and might even put them first in line.
Raut didn’t mince words in a post of his, coining the term Apna Sapna Money Money and putting a figure of Rs 15 crore on it for that night alone. To him, it’s a case of shock and disgust, and a test of character for the state’s politics.
Rumblings beyond Maharashtra
It is not just in Maharashtra. There has been some ruckus in the West Bengal Opposition as well. On Sunday, 20 wayward TMC MPs called on the Speaker and put it on the record that they are in with the NCPI, a Tripura outfit with little in the way of a profile.
Arup Chakraborty, one of the TMC rebels, said on Monday they want to put the party right and will be after its symbol. Mamata Banerjee’s camp has it that this is a straight-up violation of the anti-defection law, and we may be in for a tussle over it.
All in all, it is a time when the numbers can change without a single vote being cast. Congress would have you believe this is an attack on the mandates they have won in the past.
Key claims at a glance
This is what the Opposition has been putting out there:
– The inducements are too much to take in, says Congress
– Ramesh makes a connection to the 17 April 2026 fiasco
– Raut has the Rs 15 crore figure for the Maharashtra lot
– The TMC breakaways are with the NCPI now
What comes next
Eyes are on the procedure. The Speaker has to deal with those wanting to be on their own, and the TMC row over the symbol may have to be settled in a formal way if the rebels put their foot down.
Congress is of the opinion that none of this will amount to anything. But for the moment, between the talk of hush money in Maharashtra and the TMC’s split, the rules and the anti-defection law are being put to the test. We will be watching to see how it plays out in the House.
