JOIN US'Kidnapped' AAP Surat candidate withdraws nomination
AAP was served a rude shock by one of its candidates on Wednesday as he withdrew from the electoral race in Gujarat calling it an "anti-national and anti-Gujarat" party, an action for which the Arvind Kejriwal-led party squarely blamed the ruling BJP for "kidnapping" its nominee while "staring at a defeat".
Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala appeared before returning officer to withdraw his nomination and later issued a video statement denying any pressure while insisting that he listened to his conscience after his voters refused to support him for being an AAP candidate.
While the BJP dismissed AAP's allegations and asked it to "take care of its own house", Congress candidate Aslam Cyclewala sought to fish in troubled waters and wrote an open letter seeking AAP's support to end the saffron party's "anti-social pollution".
A four-member delegation led by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia met the Election Commission to complain about the developments. The EC said it has received the AAP representation on the withdrawal of candidature and it has been forwarded to Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer for investigation with an instruction to take action as warranted.
As AAP claimed that its candidate was kidnapped and pressured to withdraw by the BJP, Jariwala sought to defend his action through a video message in which he claimed that people repeatedly told him that he was "anti-national and anti-Gujarat" and they would not support him.
"Getting such negative feedback from the public, my conscience cried. I listened to my conscience and made up my mind not to contest the election from such an anti-national and anti-Gujarat party and withdrew my nomination without any pressure," he said.
Earlier in the day, Sisodia claimed that Jariwala, along with his family, had been missing since Tuesday and that the BJP, which is "miserably losing" in Gujarat, has been "so rattled" that it has "stooped to the level of kidnapping" their candidate.
Gujarat AAP president Gopal Italia claimed Jariwala appeared before 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, PTI reported.
Congress' Cyclewala sought AAP's support to take on the BJP and alleged that Jariwala withdrew from the race due to "intimidation, money power and deceit". He alleged this was done on the direct orders of state BJP chief CR Patil.
In a Facebook post, he said, "in a democracy, if you really want to end such anti-social corruption, then you should openly support me..."