Bhopal: Politicians resort to bizarre things when elections are around the corner. This time an election affidavit of a BJP MP has taken many by surprise. The lawmaker has just aged by a year since 2014.
BJP MP Laxmi Narayan Yadav has claimed that he turned 74 this year, while his poll affidavit filed in 2014 had specified his age as 73. The last document, however, did not have his date of birth.
Many believe it's an impact of BJP's 75 years’ criteria, which has doomed political career of many veterans. Among others in BJP, even party senior and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan's ticket has been entangled in age row and is yet to be cleared. Mahajan aka Taai turns 76 on this April 12.
When News18 contacted Yadav over the age row, he claimed that he "does not remember" the details given in 2014 affidavit, but affirmed that his date of birth was November 9, 1944. "I am not sure if my age was mentioned as 73 years in 2014. I have no idea about it," he said.
The lawmaker was also lobbying for his son Sudhir but the party denied his candidature as the latter had lost the assembly polls. The party also feared vehement opposition from Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargav whose son Abhishek had withdrawn his claim for ticket after controversy on nepotism.
Local leaders also suggest that though were some deliberations over Yadav’s name initially, he is "almost out" of the race due to age factor. Besides, names like former Finance minister Jayant Malaiya, his wife Sudha, Saroj Singh, wife of former MP Bhupendra Singh, and BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal also were in the contention.
However, lately Shweta Singh, a young lawyer and the corporator from Sagar, who is the daughter of RSS-BJP senior functionary Hari Narayan Yadav, has emerged as a strong contender. Singh’s candidature seems to have been almost finalised by the party as it wants to field a woman from Bundelkhand, and the corporator's education and clean image adds to her advantage.
Name of Rajbahadur Singh, Sagar's municipal council president and close aide of ex-MP Bhupendra Singh, is also doing the rounds.
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