ALAPPUZHA: Sobha Surendran, the NDA candidate in Alappuzha constituency, found herself in the eye of a storm as T G Nandakumar aka Dallal Nandakumar raised allegations of financial irregularities against her on Tuesday.
Nandakumar alleged that he had given Rs 10 lakh to Sobha but she did not return the amount. Sobha told reporters in Alappuzha that she had indeed received Rs 10 lakh from Nandakumar, but that was an advance for selling a plot of land in her possession. Though Nandakumar agreed to buy the land and gave Rs 10 lakh as advance amount, he went back on the deal. “Nandakumar was not ready to register the land. Hence I refused to return the money to him,” she said.
“I am ready to register the land in Nandakumar’s name. When I needed money for the treatment of my family member, I decided to sell a property. Nandakumar agreed and gave me Rs 10 lakh as advance, but he was not ready to register the land. I am always ready to register the land if he pays the balance amount. When we discussed the land sale, he tried to hand over the cash, but I was not ready to accept the money and asked him to pay it through my bank account as evidence,” she said while speaking to reporters in Kayamkulam on Tuesday.
Shobha also raised an allegation against Nandakumar that he had approached her to bring a prominent leader of CPM from Kannur to the BJP and demanded a bribe for doing so. Nandakumar met me at the national committee office of the BJP in Delhi for that purpose. He approached me after knowing that I was in charge of inducting new members to the party in south India. I met the CPM leader who wished to join the party in the house of Nandakumar, but the person was not ready to speak directly to me. Nandakumar demanded a huge amount as bribe for bringing leaders from other parties to BJP fold. Now, Nandakumar should reveal which leader wished to join BJP from CPM?” Shobha said.
“When the yatra led by CPM state secretary M V Govindan reached Thrissur, a senior leader of CPM met me at Ramanilayam. Nandakumar should clarify who that was. Later that leader reached Delhi, but the Kannur lobby in the CPM threatened him and Nandakumar dropped the plan,” Shobha said.