Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari on Sunday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was pressuring some of the candidates in the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat to withdraw from the poll fray.
The BJP, however, termed the allegations as baseless and said such claims were a cover-up for the internal conspiracies of the opposition INDIA bloc.
The Congress has given the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat to the Samajwadi Party (SP) as part of the seat-sharing agreement among the INDIA alliance constituents.
The nomination form of SP candidate Meera Yadav, however, was rejected by the Returning Officer on Friday as she had failed to sign at one place and also submitted an old voters’ list copy.
After the scrutiny, 14 candidates are in the fray in this seat, including sitting MP and BJP state president VD Sharma.
Talking to reporters on Sunday, Patwari claimed the All India Forward Bloc candidate RB Prajapati, a former government officer, met him and said he is being pressured through different tactics to withdraw his nomination.
Prajapati has made a complaint in this regard to the Election Commission, Patwari said.
The Congress leader said the BJP is using tactics, which are generally heard of in panchayat elections, in the biggest election of the country.
“The district collector (returning officer) is acting like a BJP worker and invalidated the form of SP candidate and the issue will be fought legally…but the remaining candidates are being pressured. I got the information that some of them were abducted, some were forced to go underground, nobody can come to the public domain,” Patwari claimed.
“Does the (state) BJP president want to contest the election in Bihari style, I beg your pardon, like filmi style that (the candidates) are abducted, being purchase with money, threatened, tormented through the administration, or anyhow getting forms of all candidates cancelled and get elected (unopposed)?” he said.
Patwari also asked if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted this type of country. The Congress leader demanded that the Election Commission of India provide security to the candidates.
Asked about the allegations, state BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said.
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