The Aam Aadmi Party alleged on Wednesday that its Surat East candidate Kanchan Jariwala was abducted at the behest of the BJP, which "feared" a defeat in the seat during the Gujarat Assembly election.
Addressing a press conference in Delhi, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Jariwala had been missing along with his family members since Tuesday.
"In this election, the BJP is miserably losing in Gujarat and has become so rattled that it has stooped to the level of kidnapping our candidate from Surat East," Sisodia said.
"Fearing defeat, the BJP goons have kidnapped the AAP candidate from Surat, Kanchan Jariwala," he said.
Jariwala was last seen at the Election Commission's office in Surat, where he had gone for scrutiny of his nomination papers, the AAP leader added.
"This is not just kidnapping of our candidate, but kidnapping of democracy. This is a very dangerous situation in Gujarat," Sisodia said.
He appealed to the EC to take cognisance of it and "deploy all machinery to trace and bring back our party's candidate and his family members".
Sisodia and other party leaders staged a protest outside the EC over the alleged abduction.
Several party leaders and workers gathered at the spot and raised slogans against the BJP.
-With PTI Input
