The Chhattisgarh unit of the BJP lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Raipur seeking action against 83 Congress candidates, claiming they have not furnished their criminal record details to the Election Commission within 48 hours of their selection.
In the complaint before CEO, the BJP has cited the top court’s order, according to which political parties must submit to the Election Commission the criminal antecedents of candidates within 48 hours of their selection, BJP’s state legal cell convener Jaiprakash Chandravanshi in a statement.
BJP in its complaint further claimed that the Congress neither submitted the criminal records of its 83 candidates to the EC nor published it on the party’s website, social media or in two newspapers, including a national and a local, which amounts to violation of the apex court’s order, it added.
However, the state Congress spokesperson Dhananjay Singh Thakur said their party has not given tickets to people with “criminal tendencies”, and alleged that it is the BJP’s character to protect criminals and field them in elections. The BJP has been levelling false allegations against Congress candidates who have a “clean image”, he said.
Voting in 20 assembly constituencies out of the total 90 will be held in the first phase on November 7 for which filing of nominations ended on Friday.
