Jharkhand Congress president Ajoy Kumar landed himself in a quandary when he leveled a charge that party’s nominee at Kolebira bypoll Naman Bixal Kongari was receiving threats from Jharkhand Party former MLA and jailed leader Enos Ekka. However Konagri outrightly denied the claims putting his party chief in an embarrassing situation.
Ajoy Kumar, also a former supercop, calling a press conference on Sunday claimed before the media that the party candidate and workers were under threat coming from the former MLA who is serving life sentence in a murder case after being unseated by the court.
“We are getting feedbacks and complaints that murder convict former Jharkhand Party MLA Enos Ekka is issuing threats to them and our candidate right from jail over phone so that people of the constituency do not come in support of the party.
A delegation of the Congress party would lodge complaint about this to the Election Commission tomorrow and if nothing happens we would report the matter to the Election Commission of India in Delhi,” said the PCC chief.
He went on alleging BJP’s hand behind all this and even charged the Jharkhand Party of being a ‘B team’ of it. “Jharkhand Party’s control room for Kolebira is being run from Ranchi jail under the patronage of the State Government. Enos Ekka is getting all the facilities inside his cell. This is threat to a democracy. The Congress demands shifting Enos Ekka to jail situated outside the State to ensure free and fair election in the State,” Ajoy Kumar alleged.
Moreover, when asked about the alleged threat, Kongari denied having got any. “I have not received any threat the party chief is talking about. I am not able to say anything about his statements,” said the Congress candidate to The Pioneer over phone. He though added that the former MLA and Minister Ekka and his wife Menon Ekka, who is a candidate from the seat and have secured support of the leading Opposition party JMM, were indeed using money power to influence voters.
“They have been in power and are using that clout to influence the bypoll. But I am confident about my win because they have not been able to address issues of jal, jungle and zameen for the people of the area which are their mainstay for generations,” added Kongari.
Ajoy Kumar though maintained silence over JMM’s support extended to Menon Ekka while slamming Jharkhand Party. “The byelection is the result of the conviction happened in a murder case of a para teacher. Still Jharkhand Party made corrupt Menon Ekka a candidate,” said Ajoy Kumar. Also present there were PCC spokespersons Alok Dubey, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, Lal Kishore Nath Sahadeo and Rajesh Thakur.
