Amid tough contest, Union minister Tomar faces row over son’s videos

Devendra Tomar, who has been associate vice-president, Hockey India, and president, Association of Mixed Martial Arts, Madhya Pradesh, has filed a police complaint, calling the videos fake.

On Tuesday, the Union minister broke his silence on the controversy, calling the “fake video” the handiwork of the Opposition. “This is part of a well-planned conspiracy being carried out by the Opposition at the time of elections with the aim of misleading the public… I demand the CFSL agencies to investigate this video, so that the truth can come out and the conspiracy can be exposed,” Tomar wrote on X.

आज सोशल मीडिया पर एक कूट रचित वीडियो मेरे बेटे से संबंधित वायरल किया गया है। यह एक सुनियोजित षड्यंत्र का हिस्सा है जो चुनाव के समय विपक्ष के द्वारा जनता को भ्रमित करने के उद्देश्य से चलाया जा रहा है।

— Narendra Singh Tomar (@nstomar) November 14, 2023

In the video released by the Congress, the Canada resident Jagmandeep identifies himself as a blueberry and marijuana farmer and claims he used to “give cash to” BJP leader and former Akali Dal Delhi MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa. “Manjinder Singh Sirsa used to take the cash and route it through wire transfers to the mantri’s son,” Jagmandeep says, in an alleged reference to Devendra, adding “this is not a matter of Rs 500 crore. It is a total Rs 10,000 crore”.

Sirsa, a former chief of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, told The Indian Express that he was “targeted because I do press conferences against Kamal Nath”. “This is an attempt to malign the Gurdwara Committee. The Congress is against the Sikh community, and since I keep raising the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, they have targeted me. There have been no money transactions that are illegal. I will be sending legal notices to Congress leaders who have circulated this video.”

The Congress also raised the matter at a press conference held in Delhi.

Tomar, who last contested an Assembly election more than 10 years ago, is facing incumbent MLA Ravindra Singh Tomar from Dimani. In 2018, the seat had been won by the Congress’s Girraj Dandotiya, who switched over to the BJP during the defection of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. In the bypoll that followed, Dandotiya lost to the Congress’s Ravindra by 26,467 votes.

Union minister Tomar’s task is also rendered more difficult by the presence of BSP candidate Balveer Dantodiya, who won Dimani in 2013, and who is expected to garner upper caste as well as the party’s traditional Dalit votes.

In another setback, Tomar is facing his community’s anger over the action against some of its members over the murder of a Gurjar. After protests by the Gurjar community, the home of one of the accused Tomar community members was demolished.

“The Tomar community believed the BJP stood for them. Some of our leaders could not visit the area (to placate them) because of the tension,” a BJP leader said.

Another senior BJP leader said that Tomar’s campaign got off to a sluggish start as well, after the Assembly ticket came as a surprise. “Narendra Singh Tomar was in no mood to contest… There was a delay in him hitting the ground, even as other parties began campaigning.”

However, the leader added that Tomar will eventually pull through, given the caste factor in his favour, and that he is a tall leader. “But it will be a very tough fight.”