Congress accuses Kailash Vijayvargiya of ‘hiding pending rape case’ in poll affidavit, to approach EC

The Madhya Pradesh Congress said on Wednesday that it will file a complaint with the Election Commission of India (EC) against BJP national general secretary and Indore-1 Assembly seat candidate Kailash Vijayvargiya for “not disclosing” all the cases against him in his election nomination affidavit.

MPCC media in-charge K.K. Mishra, speaking to the media in Bhopal, also accused Indore District Magistrate and Returning Officer of working under “political pressure and protecting” Mr. Vijayvargiya by not acting on a complaint filed by Congress candidate and sitting MLA of the constituency, Sanjay Shukla.

In his complaint, Mr. Shukla had demanded cancellation of Mr. Vijayvargiya’s nomination alleging that his rival BJP candidate had “not disclosed” two cases against him — a gang-rape case pending against him in a court in Alipore of West Bengal and a defamation case from 1999 in Chhattisgarh’s Durg.

Mr. Mishra told The Hindu, “The Collector did not accept our complaint saying that he was not authorised to conduct probes on any affidavit-related matters.”

“His decision is not fair as the EC’s handbook clearly says that even if a column has been left blank in the nomination form, it will be cancelled. How can he not act in case of a false and misleading affidavit?” he asked.

This proves that Indore’s Returning Officer is functioning as a “BJP agent”, he added.

Mr. Mishra said that the Congress will approach the EC, the State Election Commission and the Madhya Pradesh High Court on the matter.

Responding to the Congress allegations, Mr. Vijayvargiya had said on Tuesday that the Congress was indulging in “dirty politics” by digging up a case from the 1990s. “Where were they when I contested six Assembly polls and one for Mayor?” he said.

Meanwhile, the nomination forms of two senior BJP leaders and one senior Congress leader, which had been put on hold by their respective District Returning Officers, were cleared on Wednesday.

Forms of former Minister Surendra Patwa, the BJP candidate of Bhojpur Assembly seat, Minister Rahul Singh Lodhi, the BJP leader contesting from Khargapur, and Ajay Singh, former Leader of Opposition and Congress candidate of Churhat seat, had been put on hold following objections from their respective rivals.

Mr. Patwa had been accused of only “disclosing 167 out of 501 criminal cases against him and six out of 27 convictions” by his Congress opponent Rajkumar Patel.

Complaining against Mr. Lodhi, who is the nephew of former Chief Minister Uma Bharti, Congress’s Chanda Singh Gaur had claimed that Mr. Lodhi should not be allowed to contest as he is on a conditional bail from the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh High Court had declared his election “null and void” for discrepancies in his 2018 nomination papers.

Mr. Ajay Singh, son of former Chief Minister Arjun Singh, had been accused of giving wrong information about his and his wife’s immovable properties and submitting a “forged” affidavit instead of using the set format of the poll panel by his BJP rival Shardendu Tiwari.

The returning officers on Tuesday had given the three candidates 24 hours to respond to the complaints.

Thursday is the last date to withdraw the nominations which were filed till October 30.