BJP's Lok Sabha candidate from the Dhanbad constituency, Dhullu Mahto has 33 criminal cases against him and is notorious for coal smuggling, extortion and other cases in the Dhanbad region, according to sources. His selection has raised questions among BJP ranks and locals.
Selection of its sitting MLA from Baghmara Assembly Constituency, Dhullu Mahto, as the candidate for Lok Sabha elections from the Dhanbad constituency in Jharkhand is proving to be an unpopular decision for the BJP as voices are being raised against by locals, especially party supporters, against Mahto after the announcement of his candidature.
On behalf of the business community of the coal area in Dhanbad, President of the Dhanbad District Marwari Sammelan Krishna Agrawal wrote a letter to Jharkhand BJP president and former CM Babulal Marandi opposing his candidature and saying that panic has gripped the business community after his name was announced to contest from Dhanbad.
Agrawal has written that businessmen of the Marwari community and trades of Dhanbad, in general, are in a panic as over three dozen cases of land grab, extortion, and coal smuggling among others are still pending against Mahto.
He went on to say that Mahto has been convicted for up to 18 months in four cases. Agrawal, on behalf of the Marwari community, has requested to reconsider the candidate for Dhanbad before the party repents on its decision after the poll result.
Urging the BJP to select a candidate with a clean record, Agrawal said that Marwaris are considered huge supporters of the BJP. The party should select not one with several cases in his name, he stated in the letter.
The traders community is said to have sent copies of the letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Prime Minister’s Office and party national President JP Nadda seeking reconsideration of Mahto's candidature from Dhanbad.
Notably, the BJP nominee went furious after the letter became public. He called up Agrawal and argued with him questioning his intention behind sending such a letter to the BJP bigwigs.
The audio of the conversation is doing rounds on social media platforms in Jharkhand, where Mahto ican be heard n a threatening tone and asking Agarwal why he wrote such a letter.
He even tells Agarwal to prove the allegations levelled at him, if they are right, he would leave politics, he said adding that he was the biggest well-wisher of the people of the constituency.
More as the story develops.
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