As lawmakers moved closer to impeach disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a media report on Saturday claimed that two Indian-American businessmen were involved in a fund-raising campaign to encourage the Governor to pick Jesse Jackson Jr to fill President-elect Barack Obama's senate seat.
Blagojevich has so far resisted calls by Obama and his fellow Democrat leaders to resign, but now in an unprecedented step Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has asked the Supreme Court to declare the controversial governor unfit to serve. She has asked the court to appoint Lt Gov Patrick Quinn as acting governor.
The Chicago Tribune has reported that as Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois' next Senator, two businessmen with ties to Jesse Jackson Jr and him discussed raising at least one million for the governor's campaign as a way to encourage him to pick Jackson for the job.
Blagojevich, the paper said, made an appearance at an Oct 31 luncheon meeting at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg sponsored by businessman Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich supporter who also has fundraising and business ties to the Jackson family.
Quoting two businessmen who attended the meeting, the Tribune claimed that Nayak and Blagojevich's aide Rajinder Bedi privately told many of the more than two dozen attendees, the fundraising effort was aimed at supporting Jackson's bid for the Senate.
Under the rules, if a Senator resigns, the governor initially appoints a replacement, as each State has two Senators.
Among the attendees at the luncheon, the paper said was a Blagojevich fundraiser already under scrutiny by federal investigators, pharmacist Harish Bhatt.
The meeting led to a Blagojevich fundraiser, co-sponsored by Nayak and attended by Jesse Jackson Jr's brother, Jonathan, as well as Blagojevich, the paper said, citing several people who were there.
Blagojevich and Jackson met to discuss the Senate seat on Monday, one day before federal prosecutors arrested Blagojevich and charged him with trying to sell the US Senate.
As part of the charges, prosecutors alleged that Blagojevich was considering awarding the seat to a politician identified as 'Senate Candidate 5' because emissaries for that candidate were promising to raise as much as $1.5 million for Blagojevich's campaign fund.
The paper quoted Iftekhar Shareef, past president of the influential Federation of Indian Associations, as saying he attended the fundraiser for the governor at the invitation of Bedi and Nayak. Shareef said the congressman's brother Jonathan also attended.
'Raghu (Nayak) is always talking about how we need to appoint Jesse to the Senate,' Shareef said, adding, 'They are very close. Raghu is close with all the Jacksons. He even asked me to write a letter to the governor supporting Jesse Jackson for the Senate.'
Shareef said he wrote the letter.
A half-dozen other attendees at the two events were quoted by the paper as saying they never heard talk about trying to get Jackson placed into the Senate.
Bedi's brother, Jatinder, a journalist, acknowledged being at the India House event but said 'there was no discussion of the Senate seat'.
The paper said Rajinder Bedi couldn't be reached for comment but Nayak declined to comment. Nayak, 54, is a political and community leader in Chicago's Indian community who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Blagojevich, including more than $200,000 from Nayak, his wife and his various corporations, the paper said.
Nayak and his wife have donated more than $22,000 to Jackson, federal records show, and raised more for the Congressman.
Nayak owns a series of surgery centres on Chicago's North Side. He also founded and until recently retained an ownership stake in a drug testing laboratory with millions of dollars in Illinois public aid contracts.
