The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party on Monday accused the BJP government in Gujarat of misusing the Election Commission and police to force opposition candidates to withdraw their nomination papers or have their nominations rejected ahead of the October 11 Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections.The BJP rejected the allegations as “baseless” and described them as a “modus operandi” of the opposition to attack constitutional organizations.The Congress, meanwhile, submitted a memorandum to the State Election Commission alleging that the BJP was misusing government machinery and police to intimidate its candidates and their family members into withdrawing their nomination papers for the civic polls, party sources told news agency PTI.According to the memorandum, Congress candidates from civic wards 6 and 7, along with their families and relatives, were allegedly being pressured by personnel from the local crime branch and local police, including an LCB police inspector, to withdraw their nominations.“Such actions amount to intimidation and an abuse of power, and they seriously jeopardise the candidates’ freedom of choice,” the memorandum said.The deadline for filing nominations for the October 11 polls was September 26, according to the election schedule.The AAP separately alleged that the nomination form of its candidate Jitendra Chauhan from ward number 5 was rejected “solely for political reasons”.AAP chief spokesperson Karan Barot said Chauhan had submitted his nomination along with all the required documents and had received an acknowledgement confirming the submission.“However, he said that his form was rejected today without warning on the grounds that the mandate was lacking,” Barot said.Barot alleged that there were attempts to prevent AAP candidates from contesting the elections.“If Congress candidates run and win, the underlying ‘arrangement’ is such that they eventually desert to the BJP—a process that the AAP does not engage in. This is the reason why the forms of one of our candidates and an independent candidate were denied,” he said.He also questioned the Election Commission and accused the BJP of misusing central agencies such as the CBI and the ED.Responding to the allegations, Gujarat BJP chief spokesperson Anil Patel accused the Congress of following a “modus operandi” of making baseless allegations against constitutional institutions.“Congress has made the decision to target and discredit constitutional institutions both at home and abroad. Institutions established by the Constitution should be trusted,” Patel said.He said democratic elections had recently been held in several states and their results announced impartially.Patel also rejected the Congress’s allegations of forced withdrawals, saying it resorted to “baseless allegations” whenever it felt it was losing an election.
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“The Congress has little faith in its own candidates. They started with EVMs, followed by SIR, and now they are accusing the Election Commission. Congress turns to fabricating accusations rather than owning up to their own failings and fortifying themselves,” he said.The allegations come ahead of the Gandhinagar civic polls, where the BJP is seeking to retain its position in Gujarat’s urban local bodies.In the April elections, the BJP won all but Gandhinagar and Junagadh among Gujarat’s 15 municipal corporations. The ruling party also recorded victories across municipal corporations, municipalities, district panchayats and taluka panchayats, while the Congress finished second and the AAP made modest gains.The results also saw the Samajwadi Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) open their accounts in Gujarat.
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