New Delhi: Hours after Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor levels allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] for allegedly pressurising his party’s candidate to withdraw nomination, BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Tuesday expressed suprise over the development.
Reacting to Kishor’s allegations, the BJP lawmaker from Bihar said that Kishor should have first contested elections in Bihar.
“I am very shocked because people from outside always say that a big leader has emerged… To understand Bihar, he should have contested elections at least once and then commented on Bihar,” Rudy told reporters.
Rudy’s remark comes on the heels of Kishor levelling allegations against the BJP for pressurizing his party’s candidates to withdraw their nominations.
“We have seen a pattern in this country where, after elections, opposition MLAs are often poached, something the BJP has done multiple times across various states. Now, the same is happening in Bihar. There is no true alliance or democracy in play in Bihar right now. Jansuraaj’s candidates are being systematically obstructed. Several of our candidates were stopped from even filing their nominations. So far, three of our candidates have been forced to withdraw their nominations under pressure,” Kishor said.
Kishor’s allegations though prompted critical responses from NDA leaders. Reacting to his comments, Janata Dal [United] leader Rajiv Prasad accuses Kishor for transpiring the allegations in a planned manner.
Prashant Kishor has transpired this in a planned manner to level allegations which cannot be proven before elections. When asked about the source of income to fund his campaign, he is unable to provide satisfactory answers, said Prasad to ANI.
He noted that its a battle of perceptions and the NDA is bound to get benefits of the work done by it.
The state of Bihar will face assembly polls on November 6 and 11. The results as per the ECI will be announced on November 14. The elections are likely to be fought primarily between the BJP-JD[U] led NDA and RJD-Congress led Mahagathbandhan with Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj also claiming stakes on the 243 assembly seats.
[With inputs from ANI]
