Indian National Congress (INC) candidate of Thongju assembly constituency Seram Neken Singh has alleged that his rival BJP candidate of the same assembly constituency, Thongam Biswajit Singh, failed to disclose at least four pending criminal cases in the election affidavit.
In a press note, Seram Neken Singh mentioned that Thongam Biswajit Singh, Works Minister, has at least four criminal cases pending against him. However, the pending criminal cases have not been disclosed by the candidate and the BJP party, which is against the judgment of the Supreme Court and the guidelines of Election Commission of India, he alleged.
“Why is the BJP candidate trying to mislead the people of Thongju assembly constituency and the people of Manipur by hiding his criminal cases from public disclosure? Why is the BJP concealing the criminal cases pending against its candidate?” Neken questioned.
The INC candidate stated that the BJP-led government is claiming to be pro-people and pro-poor. However, the BJP government and its RD and PR department have been holding pending wages for the poor and unemployed MGNREGS workers since the last financial year, he added.
All members of local bodies, including 60 Zilla Parishads and 161 Gram panchayets, had imposed bandh, demanding release of pending funds for the last few months. However, the state government failed to fulfil their demands, he added.
Meanwhile, Th Biswajit told the media the same day that before raising any allegations, INC candidate Seram Neken Singh should have the knowledge regarding the differences between a ‘complaint case’ and a ‘criminal case’.
He said that if the allegation made against him were true, then Seram Neken Singh should bring out the FIR numbers related with the pending criminal cases against him.
Before fielding a candidate, the Congress party should teach them about the dos and don’ts regarding such matters, he said. Making such baseless allegations indicate that the Congress party is working without a system, he added.
All the BJP candidates filed their nomination papers by following the legal procedure and there was neither violation of the guidelines nor hiding of any relevant documents at the time of filing the nomination and therefore, no BJP candidates were rejected at the end of scrutiny of Phase 1 election, he added.
He further said that with the coming of the BJP-led government in the last five years, the average number of working days had been increasing and the wages are also being handed in a timely manner to the labourers.
For the year 2021-22, the funds for wages of laborers have been sanctioned and the pending funds will be released soon after the completion of some official works from the state treasury department, he added.
