After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused rival BJP of “kidnapping” its Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala and “forcing” him to withdraw from the poll race, the Election Commission in Gujarat stated “the candidate happily withdrew his nomination form". “When the incident was shown by the media, the Election Commission had informed the Chief Electoral Officer, Gujarat and a report was also sought from the District Election Office (in Surat). The DEO sent reports containing videos from Returning Officer, General Observer and the Gujarat Police. Through this report, it has come to light that the candidate had come to the office of the Returning Officer and had happily withdrawn his (nomination) form. His withdrawal has been accepted. Currently, he is not in the poll race,” said Kuldeep Arya, additional chief electoral officer, in response to a question during a media interaction if the Returning Officer in Surat had mentioned the “kidnapping” aspect in his report submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer, Gujarat. Asked if any political party had lodged a complaint with regard to the incident, P Bharathi, chief electoral officer, Gujarat, said, “We had received a complaint from Aam Aadmi (Party). The Election Commission had also sought a report and so we, in turn, had sought a report from DEO.” Watch how police and BJP goons together - dragged our Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala to the RO office, forcing him to withdraw his nomination The term ‘free and fair election’ has become a joke! pic.twitter.com/CY32TrUZx8 — Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) November 16, 2022 After withdrawing his nomination forms, AAP candidate Jariwala had said that he had voluntarily withdrawn due to internal conflicts with party leaders and workers. When quizzed if CEO, Gujarat had sought a report about Vadodara BJP MLA Madhu Srivastav issuing threats in public, Arya said, “A report has been sought from the district collector of Vadodara.” Talking about the seizures made while enforcing the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), Bharathi said so far seizures worth Rs 177 crore have been made, including Rs 22.41 crore in cash, Rs 8.06 crore of gold and silver, Rs 61.56 crore of drugs and Rs 8.9 crore of liquor. The seizures also include Rs 76.14 crore of Chinese toys, motorcar, motorcycle, mobile phones, tobacco and pan masala. The Gujarat Police has also seized 51 illegal weapons and 274 cartridges. So far, officials said, no connection has been established between the seized cash and liquor with political parties or their candidates. Of the total cash seized, Rs 18 crore has been seized by the Income Tax officials from Kutch and another Rs 1.6 crore from Surat. The police have also seized an additional Rs 1.43 crore from Surat.
