Ahmedabad, Apr 14 (PTI) A Gujarat Congress delegation met State Election Commissioner Murali Krishna on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum alleging police intimidation of Opposition candidates ahead of local body polls and seeking intervention to ensure free and fair voting.
The delegation, led by Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda, claimed that after the completion of scrutiny of nomination papers, police were “threatening party candidates to withdraw their forms at the behest of the ruling BJP.” The Congress team met Krishna in Gandhinagar.
As per the schedule announced by the State Election Commission, candidates contesting local self-government body polls can withdraw their nominations till April 15. Polling will be held on April 26 with the counting of votes slated for April 28.
The elections will cover 34 district panchayats, 260 taluka panchayats, 84 municipalities and 15 municipal corporations, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, making it one of the largest electoral exercises in the state.
“The role of the state’s police department appears highly suspicious and anti-democratic,” the memorandum stated, alleging the police were acting “at the behest of the BJP”.
The Opposition party said it was receiving “serious complaints” from various parts of the state from its candidates and cited multiple instances to support its allegations.
Among specific cases, the memorandum alleged that officials, including personnel from the Santej police station in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district, and the Local Crime Branch, were “harassing and intimidating Congress candidates and pressuring them to withdraw their candidature”.
The Congress claimed police personnel were visiting district party offices in Ahmedabad and Surat seeking information about candidates. In Surat, candidates were being “continuously threatened by the local police department and the SOG (Special Operations Group)”.
The Opposition party also questioned the manner in which poll officials are functioning.
“Local election officers across many places in the state make decisions as per their whims or under pressure, violating rules specified by the State Election Commission,” Chavda claimed in the letter, “In one place, a form was rejected because the name (of candidate) was not on the voter list. On the other hand, in the Veraval Municipality, the form of a BJP candidate was accepted even though his name was not on the voter list. How can different decisions be made for the same rule?” asked the Congress.
It further alleged that BJP candidates with names appearing in multiple voter lists, and those with more than two children (who are otherwise disqualified from contesting these polls), had their nominations approved despite objections and submission of evidence by rival nominees during scrutiny process, which ended on April 13.
The party claimed its candidates were being threatened with “false criminal cases”.
“The Crime Branch and local police are adopting all tactics to pressure Congress party candidates to withdraw their nominations,” it said.
It further said the husband of a Congress candidate in Tarapur municipality (Anand district) was taken to a police station and threatened to force withdrawal of nomination. PTI PJT PD RSY
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.