Indore: The Congress on Wednesday alleged that BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya deliberately did not disclose information about two cases involving serious charges of rape and defamation while filing his nomination papers from Indore-1 assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress will fight a legal battle up to the Supreme Court’s level challenging his candidature for the November 17 elections, it said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, on the other hand, said the Congress has sensed defeat in the polls and hence it was leveling such allegations.
Speaking at a news conference here, Congress spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra said former Chhattisgarh advocate general Kanak Tiwari had filed a defamation suit against Vijayvargiya in a Durg court in 1999 and the court declared the BJP leader an absconder in 2019 after he failed to respond to various summons and warrants.
A rape complaint filed by a woman was also pending against Vijayvargiya and two others in a court in Alipore in West Bengal, the Congress leader claimed.
Vijayvargiya, in his affidavit filed as the BJP candidate from Indore-1, deliberately concealed information about both the cases, he said.
Congress candidate from Indore-1 Sanjay Shukla objected to this but the district election office rejected the objection due to pressure from the ruling BJP, Sapra alleged.
“The Congress will fight a legal battle against Vijayvargiya’s candidature from the central election commission to the Supreme Court. We will also take this matter to the people’s court in the elections,” he said.
On Tuesday, Vijayvargiya had said he had nothing to hide, and if there were any omissions by mistake, they would be rectified. The last date of filing nominations expired on Monday.
Reacting to Sapra’s claims, state BJP spokesperson Govind Malu said, “The Congress has no issues in these assembly elections. As soon as it realised that it was facing a crushing defeat, it stooped to the level of making cheap allegations against BJP candidates.”
Notably, the Supreme Court had in May this year set aside an order of a magistrate’s court in West Bengal for registration of an FIR against Vijayvargiya and two others for offences including rape and criminal intimidation on a complaint by a woman activist.
The SC had said that Chief Judicial Magistrate at Alipore shall apply his “judicial mind” and may direct the state police to conduct an enquiry before registering an FIR.
