In 2019, Amit Shah's victory margin was more than 5.5 lakh votes.As the country prepares to vote in the third phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP has already won the Surat seat “unopposed”. When the BJP was celebrating their first win this election, the same evening, on April 21, a video from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar surfaced on social media. In the video, Jitendra Chauhan alleged that he was being forced to withdraw his candidature from Gandhinagar by “Amit Shah’s people” who had “hijacked” him.
“It is possible that I will be killed,” Chauhan said. “I appeal to my countrymen: save this nation; it is in danger.”
Chauhan, 39, withdrew his nomination the next day. “I withdrew because there was pressure on me,” Chauhan told news platform Scroll. “It came from Dinesh Singh Kushwah, the BJP MLA from Bapunagar in Ahmedabad.”
“I was offered to state my price – however much I want,” Chauhan alleged. “I did not want the money. But I have my reasons to withdraw. I have three daughters and I must look after them. If something happens to me, how will they survive?”
Gandhinagar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s constituency, is a BJP citadel. The party has won the Lok Sabha seat since 1989. In 2019, Shah’s victory margin was more than 5.5 lakh votes. In this election, the party reportedly has set a target of sweeping Gujarat’s 26 seats with a margin of more than 5 lakh votes. The Home Minister is contesting from the state capital this time as well. The constituency will vote on May 7.
Now, allegations of coercion and intimidation have emerged in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, which extend beyond individual candidates, with claims of interference from local BJP politicians and even accusations implicating the Gujarat Police.
So far, 16 candidates from Gandhinagar have withdrawn from the race. Twelve of them – including Chauhan – are independents, while four others belong to smaller parties, Scroll reported.
Sumitra Maurya, representing the Prajatantra Aadhar Party, reported similar incidents of intimidation, including visits to her residence and persistent phone calls pressuring her to step down from the election race.
Rajesh Maurya, the national president of Sumitra Maurya’s party, wrote a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer detailing the events and alleging involvement of the Crime Branch police.
However, BJP politicians have vehemently denied the accusations, dismissing them as baseless. Despite the denials, the atmosphere surrounding the Gandhinagar constituency remains tense, with reports of multiple candidates withdrawing citing various reasons, including lack of campaign funds and personal decisions.
While some candidates, like Naresh Priyadarshi, have opted to join the BJP after withdrawing, others, like Jayendra Rathod, have cited external pressure as their reason for stepping back from the electoral contest. Rathod, an Independent candidate, alleged pressure from former BJP MLA Ashok Patel, who denied any involvement in the matter.
“His people said that I should adjust,” he said. “They know that Amit Shah will eventually win but they did not want me to split the vote.”
Rathod, a Dalit, had contested Gandhinagar on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket in 2019. He got 6,500 votes. He is no longer contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Rathod was asked to join the BJP but he declined. He alleged that two other independent candidates, Surendra Shah and Naresh Priyadarshi, were also forced to withdraw like him. Shah quit the contest because he wanted to extend his support to Amit Shah. “He has promised to get the work done so I don’t need to fight,” he said. “I was not under any pressure.”
When asked why a party as strong as the BJP would worry about his candidature against Amit Shah, Chauhan explained, “Winning votes is secondary. When a small man stands against the country’s home minister in an election, the self-respect of the minister is on the line,” he said. “I know poor people like us don’t belong in politics. All I’d like to say is that democracy has been finished in this country. The Constitution has been finished.”