LUCKNOW: The battle Amethi got more interesting in Saturday when the BJP attacked Congress over discrepancies in Rahul Gandhi's affidavits produced at the time of nomination.
While the controversy around the educational degree of BJP candidate Smriti Irani was still raging with Congress threatening to move court against the discrepancies in her affidavit, the Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has also embroiled in a row over contradictions in his academic records and also alleged shares in a UK firm in 2004.
In the same context, four local youths, including an independent candidate fighting Lok Sabha polls from Amethi, have made a plea challenging Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship records as well. They have claimed that the Congress chief was a UK citizen as per his papers submitted during nomination.
While the BJP’s central leadership lost no time and demanded the Congress chief to come clear on the said objections, Amethi DM, also the Returning Officer (RO), ordered the postponement of scrutiny of Congress president Rahul Gandhi nomination papers to April 22.
In fact, the objections have been raised Afzal Waris, Suresh Chand, Suresh Kumar Shukla and Dhruv Lal, who is contesting as independent from Amethi. Complainant Dhruv Lal's lawyer Ravi Prakash flashed purported copies of a certificate of incorporation of a UK-registered company in which the Congress leader is stated to be a British national to the media. Ravi Prakash claimed that UK citizenship would bar Rahul Gandhi from fighting the Lok Sabha elections.
While Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer L Venkateshwar Lu said he had sought information on the complaint from the district election authorities, the RO has asked Rahul Kaushik, the Congress chief’s counsel, to give his reply to the objections till Monday 10.30 am.
However, Yogendra Misra, the president of the district Congress unit of Amethi, said the objections would be countered legally on Monday.