Kochi, Sep 29 (IANS) Congress leaders in Kerala Wednesday were upset with lawyer and party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing in the Kerala High Court for a lottery distributor whose operations they say has irregularities. They also allege the distributor has links with the rival Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The Congress unit has now decided to complain to the party high command in New Delhi.
Singhvi appeared before the Kerala High Court Wednesday for Megha Distributors owned by Santiago Martin against the recent state government’s ordinance to amend the Paper Lotteries Act, with provisions including hiking the tax on lotteries.
‘His decision to appear for Megha Distributors was inappropriate. We will approach party high command against Singhvi. It cannot be justified,’ said V.D. Satheeshan, a Congress legislator who has been fighting against the alleged ‘CPI-M-lottery mafia link’, in Thiruvananthapuram.
When contacted, Congress officials in New Delhi said they were not aware of the matter.
The Congress in Kerala has been vigorously campaigning against the ‘illegal’ Sikkim and Bhutan lotteries, alleging that the CPI-M-led government in the state was helping Megha Distributors.
With the local body elections round the corner in the state, the Congress-led opposition has been campaigning against the lotteries from outside the state, which have been allegedly making Rs.14,000 crore annually.
The opposition alleges that the lotteries from other states are sold without any checks on the number of tickets sold, the draws announced and the sales tax they are required to pay.
Last month, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala urged the CPI-M politburo to make its stand clear on the lottery issue.
Addressing party workers in Thrissur recently, Chennithala said: ‘Santiago Martin, lottery distributor and a close associate of the CPI-M, controls the lottery business in both Kerala and West Bengal.’
He also claimed that the sale of Sikkim and Bhutan lotteries fell in Kerala by 30 percent following a Congress campaign against ‘illegal lotteries’.
