AAP accuses BJP of forcing its Gujarat candidate to withdraw papers after kidnapping him, seeks action from ECI
Nov 16, 2022
New Delhi [India], November 16 : Senior AAP leader and Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia Wednesday levelled serious allegations against the ruling BJP for forcible withdrawal of papers of his party's Surat East candidate in Gujarat after kidnapping him.
Sisodia accompanied by his supporters later reached the office of Election Commission of India (ECI) "Nirvachan Sadan" on Ashoka road in New Delhi demanding action in this regard.
In a series of tweets in Hindi, Sisodia alleged "BJP's goons in Gujarat kidnapped AAP Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala and then forced him to withdraw his nomination after putting pressure on him by the police."
"What is the fun of holding elections in a such situation?" he questioned.
In another tweet, he alleged, "BJP is murdering democracy by kidnapping AAP's Gujarat candidates and forcibly withdrawing their nominations. I have come to appeal against it at Election Commission of India office."
Talking to media outside the ECI office, Sisodia urged the chief election commissioner (CEC) to provide time to meet him as this was an emergency situation.
In another tweet, Delhi's deputy chief minister said "Candidate was kidnapped. His nomination was withdrawn at gunpoint. What is the bigger emergency for election commission than this one? So, we people have come to the doors of Election Commission of India for requesting it to take immediate action."
Sisodia and other AAP leaders also raised slogans against BJP outside Nirvachan Sadan. They raised slogans "BJP murdabad (Down with BJP)", "candidato ka apharan band karo (stop kidnapping candidates)" and "chunav aayog action lau (election commission, take action)."
Meanwhile AAP's national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha tweeted a video stating "Watch how police and BJP goons together - dragged our Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala to the RO office, forcing him to withdraw his nomination. The term 'free and fair election' has become a joke!"
The voting for the Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 while the counting of votes will be done on December 8.
The last dates of withdrawal of nominations are November 17 and 21 for the first and second phases respectively.
