Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday filed his nomination papers as the BJP candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha by-election in Madhya Pradesh, even as police detained several Congress leaders ahead of planned protests against his candidature.
We will continue protesting against Puri,” MP Congress media cell co-ordinator Abhinav Barolia said, adding that party workers had also burnt effigies of the Union Minister across Bhopal on Friday. Hours before Puri arrived in Bhopal on Friday evening, state Congress president Jitu Patwari questioned the BJP’s decision to field him, alleging that a Dalit leader (Murugan) was asked to resign to accommodate the Union Minister. Youth Congress district president Amit Khatri was taken to Ashbagh police station, while state vice-president Abhishek Parmar and district president Ankit Dubey were detained at Habibganj police station. “The BJP is throttling dissent.
The BJP’s Central Election Committee had announced Puri as its nominee on October 28 for the seat vacated by the resignation of Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs L Murugan, whose term was due to end in April 2030. Patwari claimed that publicly available documents indicated meetings and email exchanges between Puri and Epstein between 2014 and 2017, demanding an explanation from the BJP and the minister on grounds of public accountability.
“The Congress’s fight is about transparency, accountability and the political dignity of Madhya Pradesh, and not about making baseless allegations against any individual,” he said.
