New Delhi:
According to party sources, the issue came to light only after Abhishek Sinha had filed his nomination papers on Thursday. The lapse is being attributed to the internal team responsible for verifying the backgrounds of prospective candidates before their names are cleared.
The development forced an abrupt change in the BJP’s campaign plans. Party president Nitin Nabin, who was scheduled to reach Patna on Friday to launch a two-day campaign for the Bankipur bypoll, did not travel to the Bihar capital. Later in the afternoon, Abhishek Sinha informed the Election Commission and the local administration that he was withdrawing his candidature.
Senior BJP sources told The Sunday Guardian that the episode was being viewed as a rare lapse and would be examined at the appropriate level to ascertain how the candidate’s background verification failed to identify such a politically significant issue before his nomination was filed.
The development assumes added significance because the BJP’s political rise in Bihar was closely linked to its campaign against the fodder scam, in which then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav was the principal accused. Within the party, there was concern that continuing with the candidature could have caused greater political embarrassment once campaigning gathered momentum.
According to party sources, a section of the Opposition had already become aware of Ravindra Prasad’s conviction and was waiting for Nitin Nabin to formally launch the BJP’s campaign in Bankipur before raising the issue publicly. The plan, sources said, was to question the BJP over fielding a candidate whose father had been convicted in the fodder scam, particularly from the Assembly constituency vacated by the party’s state president following his election to the Rajya Sabha.
The episode has prompted questions within the party over its internal scrutiny mechanism and the process followed while vetting prospective candidates before announcing their names.