MUMBAI: A secretly-shot video showing BJP MLA from Colaba Raj Purohit criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah that appeared on the websites of several language channels on Friday left the state BJP red-faced.

In the video, Purohit is shown to agree with the interviewer, whose identity is unknown, that Modi and Shah are the only ones wielding power (it is not clear if the implication is the party or the country as a whole). He alleges that there is no democracy in the BJP. "People talk of collective leadership, but it is simply absent. This is a dangerous sign for the party."

He is also heard calling chief minister Devendra Fadnavis helpless in the face of "pressure from above" and from influential individuals like builder and Malabar Hill MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha and ridiculing Raj Thackeray as a "bogus" leader.

The sting op also shows him saying that in the state, he is the seniormost BJP leader after Eknath Khadse.

Purohit told TOI the video was morphed and the voice in it was not his. The CM refused to comment on the matter. Lodha termed Purohit's political career a failure and called references to him "baseless gossip". State BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said the party has decided to send the video for forensic testing; depending on the result, the party's state president will take action in the matter. The MNS attacked Purohit's Kalbadevi office on Friday.

Towards the beginning of the video, Purohit is shown saying that competence does not matter in the party and influential people like Lodha rule the roost. Experts say Purohit's grouse is that because of Lodha, he missed out on a ministerial berth.

Purohit, who was a minister of state in the Shiv Sena-BJP government of 1995-1999, is shown as saying Lodha wields influence with the top rung of the BJP and RSS. "This is called money power. All know that Lodha is the biggest builder (here). In elections, he spends huge amounts for the party ... Even the CM is helpless. Diktats come from above and he has to do what the top rung says," Purohit says in the video.

After criticizing Modi and Shah, he is shown as saying about the central government's policies that "Narendra-bhai is doing good work, but he should avoid the mistakes he is making. Some of his decisions are alienating certain groups likes traders, who are the BJP's hard-core supporters. They were fed up with the Congress's policies and were expecting more from the BJP. But what laws have you made? If you want to buy gold worth over Re 1 lakh, you have be a PAN card holder. When half the economy is being run on black money, if you compel traders to make PAN cards, their business will definitely be affected."

He goes on to say in the video, "The Centre has come up with a bill to curb black money. It's a policy contradiction. On one hand you allow foreign investment, and on the other you seek accountability for each and every rupee. The punishment of 10 years is the same as for culpable homicide. I sit among the top traders of the country. No one is happy with the policy."

Purohit told TOI, "I called up the CM and told him to submit the video for forensic analysis. I respect the party chief (Shah) and the PM. As for criticizing the RSS, not even in my dreams can I think of doing so. I am not a big leader. I am not a national level leader. I am not a minister. I am an ordinary MLA. I don't know how anyone will benefit by maligning my image through a so-called sting operation. I think it was done to thwart my chances of becoming a minister in the state."

On Raj, he said the MNS chief is "an ideal leader of Maharashtra".

Lodha told TOI, "It appears that Raj Purohit, due to failure of his political career, has said things willy-nilly in an unrestrained manner. Our family has set up a business through 35 years of hard work ... It is no crime to run or own one's own business while being in politics ... no intelligent person is giving any importance to this baseless gossip."

Source: TOI