Assembly polls: Accused of ‘bribing’ rival candidate to withdraw nomination, Kerala BJP chief booked

Kasaragod police, on June 7, registered a case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Kerala unit chief K Surendran following allegations that his party had ‘bribed’ a rival candidate to withdraw his nomination from Manjeshwaram assembly constituency in the recent state elections.

Surendran was defeated by India Union Muslim League (IUML)’s AKM Ashraf from the seat by a narrow margin. While Ashraf secured 65,758 votes, Surendran managed to bag 65,013 votes.

According to a news report by The Indian Express, police registered a case under Sections 171 (B) and 171 (E) of the Indian Penal Code — inducing a person to exercise any electoral right, or rewarding any person from having exercised any such right and bribery, respectively.

The police had acted on a direction from the judicial magistrate court in Kasaragod, where Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader VV Rameshan had moved a petition seeking a direction for the police to register an FIR.

On June 5, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate K Sundara had claimed that he was offered Rs 15 lakh for withdrawing his nomination against Surendran.

“The BJP leaders asked me to withdraw my candidature. I had asked for Rs 15 lakh but they gave me Rs 2.5 lakh only and a mobile phone worth Rs 15,000. I had also asked for a wine shop in Karnataka if they were able to win the seat. But once the election was over, no one bothered to call me,” Sundara told the media.

Besides withdrawing his candidature, Sundara had also joined the BJP.

Manjeswaram was one of the seats were the BJP had pinned hopes of winning.

The BJP has dismissed the allegations and called it a conspiracy against the party. “We did not offer him anything to withdraw his nomination. He had publicly explained why he withdrew his candidature. Now he has changed his stance. It seems like someone is coercing him. We doubt that he is raising such allegations due to the pressure from CPI(M) and the IUML,” BJP district president K Sreekanth said.