Congress Rajya Sabha candidate from West Bengal Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Thursday termed CPI-M's allegations of inconsistency in his age mentioned in the affidavits for the coming polls, as malicious and unfounded and alleged that they are demanding to scrap his candidature, to avoid obvious defeat.
Singhvi, whose candidature in the Rajya Sabha polls in supported by state's ruling Trinamool Congress, said CPI-M is baselessly referring to a 2006 age declaration form with a "typographical error" that has no significance in 2018.
"I would not have dignified their claims with a response because the CPI-M's allegations are petty to the point of being puerile. They are malicious, baseless, unfounded, defamatory and false," he told reporters outside the state assembly.
"They raised a very malicious and false allegation about my age. It is comic because in 2018, today's election they found nothing wrong with my age. Since the CPI-M and left knows that they cannot escape defeat, they have stopped fighting like gentlemen and challenged a 2006 declaration with a typographical error, without challenging the documents of 2012 or 2018," he said.
The lawyer-politician also accused then CPI-M of raising childish objections on his nomination.
"Since they went to the extent of holding a press conference and sending a letter to the Election Commission of India, I am clarifying myself to you. There is a two and half page statement by me on this issue, which can be collected from Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan. It has all the facts," Singhvi said.
"With the cooperation of the Congress party and the supportong party, I have no doubts that the victory would be ours. These sily allegations by the Left are excuses to avoid a certain defeat," he claimed.
The CPI-M, who nominated Rabin Deb as their Rajya Sabha candidate on Wednesday claimed that there is a discrepancy in Singhvi's age mentioned in his affidavit for the coming polls and the one he filed 12 years back. It also sent a letter to the Election Commission alleging that Singhvi's forms were not properly filled.
Six candidates, including Singhvi, are vying for the election to five RS seats from West Bengal.
The election is slated to be held on March 23.
Apart from Deb and Singhvi, there are four Trinamool candidates - Nadimul Haque, Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Santanu Sen.
--IANS
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