The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Godda, Nishikant Dubey, said all BJP candidates must be supported in the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls even if they were ‘handicap’ or ‘criminals’. Dubey was addressing the BJP workers in Jamtara in Deoghar district on Wednesday.
“I want to request you all that whoever the BJP fields, be it a handicap, thief, dacoit or a naughty man, we must support that candidate. We should have faith in the decision of national president Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Raghubar Das,” said Dubey.
Defending his public statement, Dubey said he was speaking metaphorically to make the point that whosoever is selected by the party leadership must be supported by the party workers since the BJP never fields bad candidates.
“I told the party workers that even if they personally feel that the candidates are handicaps or criminals, it was their duty to support them, as our national president Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narender Modi and the Chief Minister, Raghubar Das always chose good people to contest elections,” Nishikant added.
An unimpressed Leader of Opposition(LoP) Hemant Soren of Jarkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) said Dubey’s statement exposed BJP’s fear over their prospects in the upcoming elections.
“It shows the rubbish and unparliamentary thinking of the BJP MP. He describes himself as the second Chanakya but his statement is a reflection of the fear and desperation within the BJP over their electoral prospects,” Soren said in a Facebook post.
“The real issues in the state are job losses, inflation, corruption, closure of schools and colleges, but the BJP wants to field thieves and dacoits with an invite to further loot our homes,” he added.
The assembly elections in Jharkhand are due in November-December and the election commission may announce the dates any day after Diwali festival.
While political parties are yet to announce candidates for the Assembly polls, Jharkhand BJP’s induction of a few tainted leaders from the opposition– including a murder accused and a former minister embroiled in corruption cases filed by the Enforcement Direcrorate– has already raised eyebrows.
