Gujarat Election 2022: BJP 'kidnapped' candidate Kanchan Jariwala and made him withdraw, says AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that the ruling BJP in Gujarat "kidnapped" its candidate in Surat East and forced him to withdraw his nomination.

Sisodia alleged Wednesday that BJP pressured candidate Kanchan Jariwala to "withdraw" his nomination in the seat - leaving AAP without a contestant there - though the candidate reportedly denied this.

PTI reported that Jariwala issued a video statement in which he purportedly said he withdrew his nomination without any pressure and by listening to his conscience after the people of his constituency labelled him "anti-national" and "anti-Gujarat" for contesting on an AAP ticket



"In Gujarat, BJP got AAP candidate Kanchan Jariwala kidnapped from Surat East with the help of goons and then got him to withdraw his nomination with the help of police." AAP leader and Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia tweeted.

"What is the point in having elections then?" Sisodia asked in his tweet in Hindi.

Later at a press conference in Delhi, Sisodia said Jariwala was last seen at the Election Commission's office in Surat, where he had gone for scrutiny of his nomination papers.

"This is not just kidnapping of our candidate, but kidnapping of democracy. This is a very dangerous situation in Gujarat," Sisodia said.

He appealed to the EC to take cognisance of it and "deploy all machinery" to trace and bring back the party candidate and his family members

Less than two hours before that, Delhi CM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the BJP pressurised Jariwala to withdraw after failing to get his nomination rejected.

"Our candidate from Surat (East), Kanchan Jariwala, and his family missing since yesterday. First, BJP tried to get his nomination rejected. But his nomination was accepted. Later, he was pressured to withdraw his nomination. Has he been kidnapped?" the tweet said.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha called it a "murder of democracy".

The Aam Aadmi Party is aggressively campaigning this time in Gujarat which has over the decades only seen a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.

Assembly elections in Gujarat are scheduled for two phases on December 1 and December 5. In the first round, 89 of the total 182 Assembly seats will go to polls. Votes will be counted on December 8.