Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Jitendra Awhad on Thursday alleged IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, who is at the centre of a phone tapping controversy, had pressured Independent MLAs into not joining hands with the Maha Vikas Aghadi combine that aimed to keep the BJP out of power post Assembly polls in 2019.

The opposition BJP has been claiming that a phone tapping probe helmed by Shukla as commissioner of the state intelligence department laid bare a transfer and posting for money racket, though the ruling dispensation has refuted the allegations.