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Defeat criminals in polls, appeals Apna Dal chief
PUSHED TO the wall for his reported faux pass on ticket allocation to underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem, Apna Dal is now against fielding candidates in the polls with a criminal background.
PUSHED TO the wall for his reported faux pass on ticket allocation to underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem, Apna Dal is now against fielding candidates in the polls with a criminal background.
Apna Dal national president Dr Sone Lal Patel has sprung a surprise by announcing that he would wish that the candidates having criminal background, even if they were given ticket by his party, were defeated in the upcoming Assembly election.
“My party is clear. We will not only ensure that people with doubtful and criminal credentials are kept out from the party tickets but in case someone manages to get our party ticket, my appeal to the voters is to defeat such candidates,” Patel told HT on phone on Saturday.
Patel, who shot into limelight for his reported statement that his party’s doors were open to mafia dons Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem in the upcoming Assembly elections in UP, denied making any such offer to the underworld dons for contesting polls on Apna Dal ticket.
“My point is if court exonerates any criminal of the charges, he is free to contest the polls as the same is guaranteed in our constitution also,” Patel said. “As far as question of Dawood Ibrahim and Abu Salem is concerned I have neither met them nor have I anything to do with them,” he clarified.
Apna Dal and Janata Dal (United) have entered into an electoral pact for the UP Assembly polls, projecting Patel as the chief ministerial candidate.
His reported statement about mafia dons seems to have backfired on him as former JD (U) president and NDA convenor George Fernandes has lashed at its own party leadership in Bihar on Friday for sewing a pact with a party like Apna Dal, whose leader has made such statements.
“This is an internal matter of Sharad Yadav, present president of JD (U) and former president Geroge Fernandes, Sone Lal said, repeating, “I have nothing to do with Abu Salem or Dawood Ibrahim.”
Now it becomes clear that no party is going to field dreaded don Abu Salem in the upcoming polls with the Bharatiya Samaj Party also having shut doors on the don.
