Jaipur: In a dramatic twist, Congress had to expel its two candidates, one for the Banswara Lok Sabha and one for Bagidora Assembly bypoll for six years, as they suddenly vanished and refused to withdraw their nominations despite Congress entering into an alliance with Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP).
Technically they would remain Congress’s candidates throwing the party in a dilemma.
Congress had made Arvind Damor its Banswara Lok Sabha candidate as it could not finalise the alliance with BAP till the last day of filing nomination. Interestingly, Congress had named Arjun Bamniya as its candidate but he did not file his nomination. Instead Arvind Damor, a kind of dummy candidate, went ahead and filed his nomination. He was given the Congress symbol.
Meanwhile Congress, which was in talks with BAP for alliance, ended up finalising the deal only after the nomination. BAP, who has already put up its candidate Rajkumar Roat, would now become the BAP-Congress alliance candidate. He has tweeted "To save the constitutional, democratic system of India, Congress has declared its support for Banswara Lok Sabha candidate and Bagidora Vidhan Sabha bypoll candidate."
Congress also asked its Bagidora bypoll candidate Kapur Singh to withdraw his nomination. Today being the last day of withdrawing nominations, the Congress candidates were asked to withdraw their candidatures. Instead their whereabouts remain unknown, their phones are switched off and practically they cannot be found. So Congress had to resort to expelling them from the party.
Interestingly, although Congress would not campaign for its candidates, both would remain in the field as they have the Congress symbol with them.
Hence Banswara Lok Sabha seat would see a triangular contest between BJP’s Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, 62, BAP-Congress alliance Rajkumar Roat,32 and Arvind Damor, 34 expelled but fighting on Congress symbol.
The Bagidora by poll was necessitated as MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Banswara’s tallest tribal leader, resigned from Congress and joined BJP ahead of the polls on an assurance that he would be given the Banswara Lok Sabha ticket. Malviya, who has been a Congress MLA and MP and a minister and also a CWC member, earlier was miffed with the party as he was not made the Congress Opposition leader in the Vidhan Sabha. Instead the party relied on Tikaram Jully. He has been a MLA since 2008, winning even in 2013 when BJP swept the state with 163 seats out of total 200.
In the latest episode, Malviya is said to be behind the disappearance of these two Congress candidates as sources say he may be pressuring them not to resign. Malviya may face a challenge against BAP’s Rajkumar Roat, in the field as Rot won his Chorasi Assembly seat in December with more than 69000 votes, making it one of the largest victory margins.
BAP has been in talks with the Congress for quite some time, asking them for support. BAP has won three seats in the Assembly elections and is a party, steadily making its mark in the tribal-dominated Banswara-Dungarpur area. BJP won the Banswara seat in 2019 and 2014 with huge margins. Kanakmal Katara from BJP won with a margin of over three lakh votes.