Candidates claim pressure to refrain fighting Amit Shah in Gandhinagar poll

Three candidates have claimed that they were under pressure to withdraw their nominations from the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency with one of them accusing “people associated with the BJP” of threatening him, a charge strongly denied by the ruling party.

Jitendra Chauhan, who has since withdrawn from the fray, said in a video that went viral last month that “people associated with the BJP” had been threatening him after he filed his nomination as a candidate of the ‘Akhil Bhartiya Parivar Party’.

Jayendra Rathod, an independent, said he withdrew his candidature due to “soft pressure” by BJP leaders who said they wanted to keep the number of candidates in the fray low. “After having a word with my uncle, I withdrew my candidature; no one threatened me for that,” he told reporters.

Sumitra Maurya, candidate of Prajatantra Aadhar Party who is still in the fray, claimed in a video shot at Somnath that ever since she filed her nomination papers, some people were calling and threatening her, and police were following her when she arrived in the temple town. Denying the allegations, Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said sitting MP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the party’s candidate from the seat, does not need to resort to such tactics, and the BJP never indulges in such practices.