Social activist and human rights campaigner, Shabnam Hashmi, has alleged in a post on X that goons snatched away voters’ lists and polling booth agents’ forms of 84 polling booths in Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Speaking exclusively to ‘Vibes of India’, Hashmi said: “This happened on Monday and the Congress candidate Sonal Patel, who is facing Amit Shah in the constituency, was working late into the night to get the problem rectified.” Hashmi also alleged that some candidates were offered money telling them to withdraw their candidature.
“Criminal elements in Juhapura are preventing people of the minority community from coming out to vote. The same thing is happening in minority areas in Kalol. Also, goons are offering people Rs 500 and putting ink on their fingers so that they cannot vote,” she alleged. Both Juhapura and Kalol come under the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency.
Letter to CEC
Earlier, in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Shah on April 19, Hashmi had said that she had received several calls from residents of Gandhinagar constituency that undue pressure was being put on various community and political leaders by the state machinery.
She visited Ahmedabad to get first-hand information. There are seven Assembly constituencies in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. She said she spoke to people in six of them – Sabarmati, Sanand, Vejalpur, Kalol, Ghatlodia and Naranpura.
The people with whom she interacted included over 200 community leaders, student leaders, citizens, Congress and AAP members and district-level leaders, and some candidates fighting from other parties.
In the letter, Hashmi alleged that a large number of people have been getting calls from cops and the Crime Branch intimidating them. They were told not to campaign for the Congress candidate. Also, antisocial elements were instructed to create mischief. She alleged that Congress banners were removed from several places. The state machinery, including the top officials, are campaigning on behalf of the BJP candidate, Amit Shah, alleged Hashmi.
