Ahmedabad: In a surprise move, suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta has been given the Congress ticket from Maninagar to take on Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Importantly, the announcement was made on a day when Modi is scheduled to file his nomination papers from the central Ahmedabad constituency.
In the 2007 election, Modi had won Maninagar, which falls in Ahmedabad city, by around 75,000 votes defeating Dinsha Patel of the Congress.
It is also quite interesting to note that Shweta’s decision to contest polls came a day after the wife of slain former BJP minister Haren Pandya, Jagruti, announced that she will contest polls from Ellisbridge constituency of the city on Gujarat Parivartan Party ticket to get "justice for her husband from people's court".
Haren Pandya was assassinated on March 26, 2003.
Sanjiv Bhatt had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in which he alleged Modi's complicity in post-Godhra riots.
The suspended IPS officer is facing charges of coercing his official driver to make a false statement in connection with the alleged inaction of the Modi government during the 2002 riots in the state.
Bhatt has pleaded that the case against him was fabricated and was a consequence of political vendetta.
He has sought investigation by an independent agency into the allegations.
It was alleged that Bhatt had pressured his driver KD Pant to tell a court that he drove the Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service officer to the Chief Minister’s residence on February 27, 2002.
Bhatt had claimed that in the meeting held at the Chief Minister’s residence that day, Modi told senior administration officials not to act against rioters.
