Gujarat: AAP's candidates in Surat held at hotel after 'Kidnapped' candidate withdrew nomination
AHMEDABAD: The last-moment withdrawal of Surat (East) candidate Kanchan Jariwala has rung an alarm bell for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Following the incident, the AAP on Thursday called Surat’s 11 candidates to a hotel on the pretext of a meeting and did not allow them to move out of the hotel until the time limit for withdrawing the form expired.
The Punjab team was actively engaged with Aam Aadmi Party’s candidates for Surat city and other districts since early morning today. All candidates were taken out of the Surat District limit. All the candidates for AAP were called to one place by the Punjab team and then they were taken out of the city.
Preparations were made in advance so that no one can contact them and no candidate is pressured by other political parties and threatened to withdraw their nomination papers.
A leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, on condition of anonymity, said that “we were gathered at a place early this morning. In which the candidates of different assemblies were called for a meeting. From there We were then taken to a hotel outside the city."
“We and all Gujarat has seen which kind of dirty game the Bharatiya Janata Party played on Thursday, and the kind of intimidation that was given to our candidate's family and Kanchan Jariwala, our party planned to take us out so that no one pressures us. We have had a conversation with our leaders. After the time for withdrawal of nomination papers was over, we were brought back from where we were taken outside the city,” he said.
READ | Acted on my conscience, says AAP's 'kidnapped' Gujarat candidate who withdrew nomination
However, Aam Aadmi Party’s spokesperson Yogesh Jadvani claimed that no such incident happened and said, "No such incident happened, it is our daily work, we have daily meetings, we hold a training session every day, besides if there is any guideline issued by our Party, then we have a meeting for that, but people
have misrepresented our daily meeting or taken it somewhere else."
“We have routine meetings every day, and none of our candidates has gone out of the city,” he added.
Importantly, amid high drama, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Surat (East) candidate Kanchan Jariwala on Wednesday announced his withdrawal from the poll race. Still, the party alleged he was forced to do so by BJP who had kidnapped him the previous day.
On Friday Election Commission clarify that AAP candidate Kanchan Jariwala from Surat(East), has withdrawn the form after coming to the Returning Officers (RO) office, EC has asked for a report about the incident, and the report has come with video evidence that from has been withdrawn in the presence of RO officer, AAP filed a complaint before the Election Commission.
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