Modi challenger’s nomination cancelled

 

NEW DELHI: India’s Election Commission has cancelled the nomination of an ex-soldier who was running against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Varanasi constituency of Uttar Pradesh state.

It said that government employees who were dismissed from service cannot contest polls for five years. The former Border Security Force soldier, Tej Bahadur Yadav, shot to fame in 2017 after posting three videos, complaining that troops on the border with Pakistan were often served poor-quality food. The videos went viral, prompting an official inquiry.

Mr Yadav was sacked four months later for “making false allegations”.

Mr Yadav was contesting against Mr Modi as a joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The regional parties have formed an alliance to contest against Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress party.

The ex-soldier, who has never contested an election before, was certainly a surprising choice – especially since he was going up against Mr Modi, who won the seat by a huge margin of more than 300,000 votes in 2014.

But he was also bound to grab attention as a candidate because his videos had sparked both sympathy and outrage on his behalf. He had posted videos of burnt food and said the quality of the food was so poor that soldiers often chose not to eat at all.

And his candidacy was also a political statement of sorts – Mr Modi has repeatedly evoked the sacrifices of soldiers during his campaign. National security became an election plank after Indian troops were killed in a suicide attack in Kashmir. India said a Pakistan-based militant group was responsible.

128 Comments

  5. 158670 202626Hey there. I want to to ask a bit somethingis this a wordpress internet log as we are preparing to be transferring over to WP. Additionally did you make this template all by yourself? A lot of thanks. 41155

  7. 151031 485167Id should verify with you here. Which isnt one thing I often do! I get pleasure from reading a put up that will make individuals think. Furthermore, thanks for allowing me to comment! 692175

  9. 711900 669732Searching forward to move into an additional hous?! […]Real estate busines is obtaining far more and far more less protitable, take a look at why[…] 657818

  14. 649318 895724When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Appreciate it! 954231

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.