BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde – the ex-Maharashtra minister accused of a cash-for-votes scam before Wednesday’s election – on Friday sent defamation notices to three senior Congress leaders, including party boss Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi, claiming their “false and baseless allegations… regarding ₹ 5 crore money being distributed”.

The allegations, Mr Tawde complained, were made “with the sole intention of damaging the prospects of the party (the BJP) and also defaming (me)… in the eyes of right-thinking people”.

The Congress leaders, he insisted in his legal notice, were “very well aware of the fact that you are publishing a totally false story… fabricated by you” that was then disseminated online.

“I have sent defamation notices to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate in the false Nallasopara case… because they tried to malign my image and that of the Bharatiya Janata Party by spreading lies,” Mr Tawde said on X.

“The truth is before everyone… the alleged amount of ₹ 5 crore was not recovered during the investigation by the Election Commission and the police. This case is proof of Congress’ low-level politics,” he said.

The allegations in question were first made on Tuesday – 24 hours before voting was to begin – by a regional party, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi. The BVA claimed the saffron party’s Nallasopara candidate, Rajan Naik, was distributing cash – in Mr Tawde’s presence – to influence voters.

The Nallasopara seat – in Palghar district – was formed in 2009 and has since been held by the BVA’s Kshitij Thakur, who won by over 43,000 votes in 2019. This time he faces Naik, the Congress’ Sandeep Pandey, and Vinod More of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

According to the BVA, envelopes full of cash were found at a hotel at which Mr Tawde and the BJP candidate were interacting with voters. Viral videos showed BVA supporters waving currency notes in front of Mr Tawde. Two police cases have been registered so far.

Mr Tawde has been named in one but that is for campaigning during the mandated ‘silence’ period. In the second, which deals with the distribution of cash, he is not mentioned.

According to the district officials ₹ 9,93,000 in cash was recovered. But the BVA has alleged ₹ 5 crore had already been distributed, and that Mr Tawde has a diary detailing the recipients.

The BJP trashed the “baseless” allegations and called it a political stunt by the BVA on the eve of polling. The party said Mr Tawde was meeting with party workers to discuss poll prep.

The Congress has also gotten involved, as has the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by ally Sharad Pawar, for whom Supriya Sule said, “I am surprised a senior leader like Tawde was involved – if this is true.”

The controversy, which will add further fuel to the political fire raging between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances, follows another over checking of bags of political leaders by the Election Commission as part of measures against distributing cash for votes.

Former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray set that ball rolling by red-flagging searches of his bag while asking if those from ruling party leaders were also searched.

Subsequently, the bags of senior BJP leaders and those of its allies, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, were also searched.