Stacked up against the odds of the infamous Railgate scandal, former Union Minister and sitting MP from Chandigarh Pawan Kumar Bansal on Wednesday made an emotional appeal to city residents saying ‘he may be stoned to death if found guilty,’ even anytime later.

All this while, Bansal preferred to evade talks about the railway scam controversy that shrouds him, but just a day before the polling he chose to candidly speak about the taint that he says ‘traumatised him deeply’.

Facing his toughest election ever, Bansal in an open letter on Wednesday wrote, “All this time I have suffered the barrage of Goebellian untruths of my opponents. Before man and God, I say with all sincerity that I did no wrong, and at any time even years later, if anything is found against me in court, I may be given the severest punishment of stoning to death.”
Bansal said the railway scam came as a shock to him and traumatised him deeply, adding that he has been a target of sustained slander and calumny.

As Chandigarh votes on Thursday, Bansal had to face the onslaught of an aggressive campaign — one that revolved around his alleged Railgate taint — unleashed by his political opponents. Chandigarh has witnessed an exciting three-cornered contest between Bollywood celebrity beauties Gul Panag of AAP, Kirron Kher of the BJP and the old warhorse Pawan Kumar Bansal of the Congress. The BSP candidate Jannat Jahan too is a strong woman contender vying the LS seat from here.