Amar Singh gets a BSP man arrested for demanding Rs 5 crore to change statement

New Delhi, Sept 25 (ANI): Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh on Thursday had a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) worker demanding Rs five crore from him arrested.

He alleged that Azmat Ali made the demand in return for changing his version of the cash-for-vote scam, which a Parliamentary panel is probing.

Singh alleged that Ali had been repeatedly calling him for the past one month and had come to his official residence this morning to demand the hefty amount.

The Delhi Police later picked up Ali for questioning from Singh's residence.

A seven-member committee has been constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to look into the scam that surfaced during the July 22 no-confidence motion against the Government in Parliament.

Three BJP Lok Sabha MPs brought wads of notes into the House during the trust vote and alleged that Amar Singh had sought to bribe them to support the confidence motion.

On the state of ties with the Congress, Singh expressed his unhappiness, saying: "I am disappointed that Congress MP Rashid Aivi attacked me. I am hurt. I also object the way in which Raj Babar and Beni Prasad Sharma's name is cropping up. I do not know what our relations with the Congress will be in the future, but I would like to maintain a good relation with Soniaji and Mammohanji."The two parties have been engaged in talks for seat sharing in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. With two rounds of talks failing to yield any results, a third round of talks may take place later this week. With both sides making charges against each other over the seat-sharing issue, the rift between the two parties is deepening.

Singh further accused the Congress of indulging in character assassination, and threatened to expose a host of senior Congressmen.

The Samajwadi Party had supported the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government during the confidence vote after the Left parties withdrew support over the Indo-US nuclear deal. (ANI)