AHMEDABAD: Ahead of the April 15 deadline for withdrawal of nominations for the Gujarat local body elections, the Congress has reportedly gone into "candidate protection mode", with several nominees switching off phones and being moved to undisclosed locations.
Gujarat Congress chief Amit Chavda alleged that BJP leaders are offering Rs 20 lakh to 30 lakh deals to poach Congress candidates. "This is not an election, this is a marketplace," he said, warning that democracy is being "auctioned seat by seat".
Chavda further claimed, "Police and administration in Gujarat are acting like BJP agents… officers have virtually worn the BJP’s uniform," alleging that law enforcement officials are visiting homes of Congress candidates to intimidate them across districts like Kalol, Surat, and Anand.
Chavda alleged that an election officer in South Gujarat’s Umargam was pushed to suicide under “extreme political pressure” to cancel a nomination form. “Such was the pressure that an officer broke under repeated torture,” he claimed, adding that a Congress delegation is set to approach the State Election Commission with formal complaints.
Meanwhile, by the final day of scrutiny, 9,819 nomination forms were rejected across Gujarat -- 1,934 in Municipal Corporations, 1,164 in Municipalities, and a massive 6,721 in District and Taluka Panchayats.
Elections for 15 Municipal Corporations, 34 District Panchayats, 84 Municipalities, and 260 Taluka Panchayats are scheduled for April 26.
BJP is reportedly pushing for withdrawals to secure seats without a fight. This has triggered alarm within Congress, especially in politically sensitive zones such as Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot. Congress has now launched a covert operation dubbed “Mission Unknown,” relocating around 65 candidates to secure locations to prevent defections.
However, BJP spokesperson Dr Anil Patel dismissed Congress allegations as “excuses of a collapsing organisation,” claiming, “Congress doesn’t even have enough candidates… they ran QR code campaigns to find nominees and still failed”.
He further said, “How weak is a party that it has to hide its own candidates?” arguing that the BJP’s uncontested wins reflect strength, not manipulation, while Congress is merely repackaging old allegations to mask its electoral decline.