Ranchi: Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a campaign to oppose the proposed appointment of Congress MLA Banna Gupta as a state Cabinet minister.
State BJP vice president Deepak Prakash and another party leader Rakesh Prasad today demanded a probe into the criminal cases lodged against the Congress legislator before he is appointed a minister.
The BJP leaders, speaking to scribes at the BJP headquarters in the state Capital, demanded that the governor Dr Syed Ahmad should order a probe into the cases against Gupta and postpone his proposed oath-taking ceremony.
�The state government has no moral right to tainted legislators as ministers.
This is against the tenets of the Constitution and also against the sentiments of the people. Persons booked under various charges in different criminal cases should not be made ministers as this would send wrong message among the people and would also cause much damage to the government and the state,� said Prakash.
The BJP leaders alleged that cases of extortion, power theft, usurpation or land and other criminal cases were lodged against Gupta. They also alleged that discrepancies related to faulty power connection had also surfaced in the past against Gupta.
The BJP leaders further said that the state government was planning to appoint Gupta a minister in the place of former agriculture minister Yogendra Sao who was accused of having links with Jharkhand Tigers Group, a terrorist organization.