Rajasthan: BJP MLA denies threatening voters

Kota, Dec 21: After a video surfaced purportedly showing him threatening voters with consequences if they do not vote for BJP, party MLA Bhawani Singh Rajawat on Sunday said he was only asking the electorate to choose BJP over Congress as the latter had "done nothing for them".

A video of Rajawat, BJP MLA from Ladpura in Kota, surfaced in the social media purportedly showing him wooing and threatening voters of driving them out of their illegally built dwellings in Kota, if they do not vote for BJP in recent local body elections.

"The matter is associated to the Municipal Corporation election and there is a scheme in my constituency under which people are residing illegally in around 250-300 houses," the MLA said.

"They had come to me and I showed pity on them considering them to be poor and allowed them to stay in those houses and later shift them to some other place under Punarvaas Scheme," he said.

"When the Municipality elections came, I told them that I am providing you a place to stay, and other basic amenities, so you vote for the BJP and not for Congress as it has not done anything for you and only exploited the poor," he charged.

Along with the video of threatening voters, another video of Rajawat rebuking a DySP on duty and an audio clip of another BJP leader of scolding a police official for not relaxing the curfew in Bundi district also surfaced. In the audio tape, Pramod Jain, municipality chairman of Nainwa sub-division of Bundi district, is heard rebuking a police official for not relaxing the curfew during communal tension in Nainwa in September this year.

The audio is reported to be of September 9 this year when Nainwa region was going through communal tension and curfew was imposed. Kota district BJP president Hament Vijayvargeya yesterday said he has not seen the video and audio clippings so far as he was busy in state party meetings. "I have not seen and heard them so far," he said.

District SP Tejra Singh said he has not heard the clipping so far, adding that no action can be taken in the matter until a complaint from the victims is received.

PTI