A day after a controversy erupted over the candidature of Congress’s Jaipur Lok Sabha candidate Sunil Sharma over his association with The Jaipur Dialogues, a right-wing organisation known for ridiculing Congress and its leadersthe party dropped him as its candidate. The Congress party has instead fielded former cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas from the Jaipur Lok Sabha seat.
In its list of candidates announced last Thursday, the Congress had named Sharma from Jaipur, where he is known for his and his family’s long association with Congress as well as for being the Chairman and Chancellor of the private Suresh Gyan Vihar University (SGVU) in Jaipur. However, overshadowing this on Saturday was his association with The Jaipur Dialogues, which identifies itself as a “platform for the right thinking people”, and was launched in 2016 by the now retired IAS officer Sanjay Dixit.
This had prompted an outcry on social media, including from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. The Congress workers and supporters had questioned the party’s move and asked it to reconsider its decision since the platform is known for its crude attacks against the opposition. Sharma had attempted to distance himself from the organisation but it was a case of too little, too late.
Talking to The Indian Express Sunday, hours before he was replaced by the party, Sharma had claimed that he was a director with The Jaipur Dialogues Forum, also run by Dixit, and not JD Digital Private Limited which, he claims, is behind the social media accounts on X and YouTube which share controversial material, “I have no association with Jaipur Digital through which he (Dixit) spews venom or earns money,” Sharma said.
He said that the Forum was registered as a Section 8 company since it was a charity organisation, unlike the JD Digital Private Limited, and that he had left the Forum too last year. Sharma said that his secular credentials don’t need to be defended since all those in Jaipur who have known him and his family will vouch for it. He said that he did go to debates and discussions by Jaipur Dialogues but only upheld the Congress’s and secular ideals.
Replacing him, the party has opted for two-term MLA and former cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas. In the December elections, Khachariyawas had lost from Jaipur’s Civil Lines seat to BJP’s Gopal Sharma.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 24-03-2024 at 20:37 IST
