‘Kidnapped’ AAP Surat candidate withdraws nomination; BJP afraid of losing polls, says AAP
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Aam Aadmi Party's Surat East Assembly seat candidate in Gujarat withdrew his nomination on Wednesday, with the AAP alleging that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party pressured him to do so.
The BJP, however, denied the charge and asked the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP to "take care of its own house".
Elections for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.
State AAP president Gopal Italia claimed their Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala appeared before the office of the Returning Officer on Wednesday under heavy police protection and surrounded by "BJP goons" to withdraw his candidature under the pressure of the ruling party.
When mediapersons questioned Jariwala, he was hurriedly whisked away by the persons surrounding him.
Italia alleged that Jariwala had gone missing and was allegedly taken to an undisclosed location by the BJP goons who put pressure on him to stay away from the election.
However, Surat city BJP president Niranjan Zanzmera refuted the allegations and said the AAP should instead "take care of its own house."
Italia said the AAP will take advice of its legal team for further action into the matter. The BJP has fielded its sitting MLA Arvind Rana from the seat.
Talking to reporters in Surat, Italia claimed, "The BJP first wanted to get Jariwala's nomination invalidated on the last date of the process on Tuesday. When his nomination was accepted, the BJP goons took him to some undisclosed location...We could not find him anywhere until Wednesday morning. His relatives told us that he was put under huge pressure to stay away from the election."
Italia further said the way Jariwala appeared to withdraw his nomination suggested that he was under "huge pressure."
"Why else would he come to the office under heavy police protection and with 50-100 goons if he intended to withdraw his candidature on his own?" Italia asked.
AAP's Gujarat co-incharge Raghav Chadha alleged that the "BJP goons" kidnapped Jariwala on Tuesday to put pressure on him to withdraw his candidature.
"The BJP is so scared in Gujarat that it has started kidnapping the AAP candidates," the Rajya Sabha member claimed.
"The BJP goons themselves went to the office of the Returning Officer along with Jariwala and put pressure on him to get his nomination invalidated. Pressure was also put on his proposers to get his nomination invalidated," he alleged.
Chadha said the party has informed the Chief Electoral Officer about it, and a written complaint will be submitted. Local police and administration have also been informed about it, he said.
Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar told PTI that the issue has come to his notice.
"I have come to know about it and we are trying to find out. I have put my teams on the job and we will find it out. We have not received any formal complaint yet but since this has come to my notice, I am working on it," the police official said.
#WATCH | Gujarat: AAP candidate from Surat (East) from Gujarat, Kanchan Jariwala, takes back his nomination after he was allegedly kidnapped last evening pic.twitter.com/E1vqqkveNi
— ANI (@ANI) November 16, 2022
Our candidate from Surat (East), Kanchan Jariwala, and his family missing since yesterday. First, BJP tried to get his nomination rejected. But his nomination was accepted. Later, he was being pressurised to withdraw his nomination.
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 16, 2022
Has he been kidnapped?
Murder of democracy!
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) November 16, 2022
Our candidate Kanchan Jariwala from Surat East seat has been kidnapped by BJP.
First BJP unsuccessfully tried to get his nomination papers rejected, then coerced him to withdraw his candidature and now kidnapped him. He is missing since last afternoon. pic.twitter.com/SWpOEjSG59
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Justice Swarana K Sharma starts contempt case against Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia over excise posts
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi High Court judge Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma on Thursday initiated criminal contempt proceedings against AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh, Saurabh Bhardwaj and others over their "vilifying" social media posts against her in relation to the excise policy case.
Justice Sharma said the former Delhi chief minister "orchestrated a calculated campaign" of vilification against her on social media instead of pursuing his legal remedies and clarified that the CBI's petition against the discharge of all accused persons would now be taken up by another bench.
The judge took exception to several social media posts by the proposed contemnors that attributed "political allegiance" to her and allegedly targeted her by posting a misleading "edited" video of a speech given by her at an educational institution in Varanasi.
"Arvind Kejriwal sought to destroy my reputation instead of availing legal remedies after I refused to recuse and a deliberate attempt to lower the court's authority can't be permitted in guise of free speech," Justice Sharma said.
She clarified that she was not recusing herself but was only transferring the case to another bench as she has initiated the contempt proceedings.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for CBI, thanked Justice Sharma for upholding the institution's dignity.
