Former cabinet minister Saryu Roy on Monday hurled allegation of yet another scam in a department held by chief minister Raghubar Das.

The former BJP leader, who contested against Das from Jamshedpur East in the ongoing Assembly elections after being denied the party ticket from Jamshedpur West where he was the sitting MLA, alleged that the energy department was involved in a scam of Rs 850 crore by deciding to issue a tender to a Gujarat-based firm, Flowmore Limited, violating the provisions of the tender norms.

“The private company was trying to get tenders of a JUVNL (Jharkhand Urja Vikas Nigam Limited) power grid substation in 2018. However, it had violated the tender provision by hiding the fact that it was blacklisted in neighbouring Bihar by the water resources department,” Roy said at a news meet in his Bistupur residence.

“However, when I protested, the private firm managed to get a certificate from the (Bihar) water resource department that the blacklisting order was repealed. Two members of the tender evaluation committee also protested but they were removed from the committee and a new committee was formed. The removed members then went to the high court. The tender is yet to be finalised.

“However, the entire issue smacks of a deliberate attempt to push the case of a private firm by JUVNL, which reports to the chief minister,” said Roy.

The former minister alleged that the Das government was involved in an energy scam.

“I would like to call it as an energy scam as overhead cables and underground cables for dedicated feeder for water supply have overlapping payments and are of inferior quality. I had requested for a comparison of the cost and quality of overhead and underground cables with the cables being laid by Jusco (Tata Steel’s utility wing). But it is yet to be done,” alleged Roy.

He also said that he would be campaigning for Independent candidate and former BJP MLA Madhav Lal Singh in Gomia.

Roy, whose team had alleged EVM manipulation in the Jamshedpur East election on Saturday, expressed satisfaction on the administration’s measures for conducting a peaceful election but blamed it for creating confusion over EVMs.

“I am satisfied with administration measures. However, carrying of EVMs from polling booths should have been done in a more secured manner rather than being taken on foot which led to confusion. The administration also provided details about polling held and the number of votes cast in the polling booths in which there was suspicion,” said Roy.

The former BJP leader claimed that the ruling party would lose seats if it continued to project Das as the chief minister.

“My analysis says that the BJP will win around three seats in the two phase of the polls (for 33 constituencies in total) as there is resentment against Raghubar Das and they (BJP) would continue to lose more seats if they project Raghubar Das as the chief minister candidate,” said Roy.