Jaipur: Archana, hubby conspired to defeat me: Khandelwal

JAIPUR: Former Jaipur mayor Jyoti Khandelwal who also fought the recently conducted Lok Sabha elections as Congress candidate has alleged that state Congress media chairperson Archana Sharma and her husband conspired to defeat her in the elections. Earlier too she had made such allegations. Khandelwal asked the AICC to conduct a serious inquiry to find out the truth.
Archana Sharma was Congress candidate from the Malviya Nagar seat during Vidhan Sabha elections and was defeated by a slender margin of less than 1000 votes.Khandelwal said she had written to the Congress president seeking a probe so that such a debacle in LS elections could be averted in future.
“Malviya Nagar assembly segment should be treated as a case study so that similar incidents can be averted in future. This happened in 2014 and now in 2019. If you want to avoid similar dismal performance, the party should order a serious inquiry and find out the truth,” she said.
She was talking to the media and claimed she had proof that Archana’s husband Somendra Sharma had claimed that BJP candidate should win with record margin. Khandelwal said that in many booths under Malviya Nagar assembly segment there were no party workers to man the booths. It was a virtual walkover for the BJP, said the Congress leader.
She claimed, “I have footage of Somendra Sharma’s conversation where he is saying that some seven to eight peoples’ representatives have decided to defeat the party candidate from Jaipur. She alleged that Archana Sharma never campaigned for the party candidate. She was either confined to PCC or could be seen only in Jalupura, Khandelwal alleged.
She also alleged that Archana’s father-in-law Acharya Dharmendra used to abuse Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and also Mahatma Gandhi. Archana Sharma, however, refused to get into the controversy saying the party had issued a gag order and they were not allowed to speak to the media.