Baseless, false allegations: Sharma, Kamal Nath

Two key players, including former Union Minister Satish Sharma, whose name figures in the Wikileaks cables in connection with allegations of bribing MPs to win the 2008 trust vote, on Thursday denied any role in the episode.

Rejecting the allegations, Mr. Sharma said he did not have any aide by the name of Nachiketa Kapur and the allegations were baseless.

“I have read

The Hindu paper. It said I have an aide. I do not have any political aide. There was no aide of me by the name of Kapur as reported by the paper,” Mr. Sharma said.

U.S. diplomatic cables released by the Wikileaks claimed that an aide of Mr. Sharma allegedly showed a U.S. Embassy employee. “two chests containing cash” and said Rs. 50-60 crore is ready for use as “pay-offs” to win the support of some MPs ahead of crucial vote of confidence in the UPA government over the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal.

Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday dismissed the WikiLeaks report which alleged that he was also “helping distributing largesse” to defeat the trust vote sought by the government.

“Whatever has been attributed to me, I completely deny. It is completely false,” Mr. Nath told journalists here.

The WikiLeaks cable said: “[The then] Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath was also helping largesse. Fortunately he could only offer small planes as bribes; now he can pay for votes with jets.”

Rubbishing the claim Mr. Nath said it was absolutely ridiculous.