Congress cries foul after Nandigram bypoll candidate held in 2007 case
The Congress on Friday accused the BJP of committing "murder of democracy" in West Bengal after the opposition party's candidate for the October 6 Nandigram bypoll, Milan Pradhan, was arrested in the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement case.
While Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge termed the arrest a brazen attempt at "vote chori" and "chunav chori", Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said it was "political revenge".
Kharge claimed that Pradhan's arrest was "a brazen attempt at VOTE CHORI and CHUNAV CHORI".
He said the BJP was so insecure that it was "misusing" agencies to target and arrest an opposition candidate even in a bypoll.
"The Prime Minister boasts of India as the "Mother of Democracy". What the BJP is doing in West Bengal is the MURDER OF DEMOCRACY. Congress will neither be intimidated nor silenced. A united INDIA will fight back," Kharge said in his post on X in Hindi.
Gandhi also took to X to target the BJP.
"The arrest of Congress candidate Milan Pradhan for the Nandigram by-election is no coincidence -- it is political revenge, the murder of democracy," he said.
"The BJP has no faith in fair elections -- that's why it wants to cling to power sometimes through vote theft, sometimes through stealing governments, and sometimes through stealing parties," Gandhi said in his post on X.
He said the BJP did not want to contest elections, "they want to end the electoral fight altogether".
"The Congress will neither fear nor bow down. We will fight -- and we will win," he added.
Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said that using a dormant 19-year-old case to arrest the Congress candidate showed that the BJP would go to any length to "hijack" democracy.
"Democracy is on a ventilator in BJP's West Bengal. This is the BJP's latest effort to ensure Opposition-Mukt Bharat, successfully converting our great constitutional democracy into a Banana Republic," Venugopal said on X.
He said the Congress was the party that fought the oppressive British rule and drove them away.
"...these petty intimidation tactics by their cheap copycats are not going to scare us. We will stand tall against this misuse of power, and we will ensure the BJP's defeat," he said.
Pradhan was arrested on Friday for his alleged involvement in the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram, a senior Congress leader claimed.
Another party leader, Subhasish Bhattacharya, was also arrested for allegedly trying to prevent police from apprehending Pradhan.
Pradhan, who has been named in more than 12 cases over the Nandigram land movement, was picked up from a hotel in Chandipur in Purba Medinipur district, the Congress leader said.
Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced her party's support for Pradhan in the Nandigram bypoll on Friday, hours after her party's candidate withdrew from the contest.
