‘Murder of democracy’: Rahul Gandhi on Nandigram candidate’s arrest
Mamata Banerjee questioned the timing of Milan Pradhan’s arrest and said that it was the ‘usual BJP formula’ to ‘dig out an old case’.
Black News 
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday described the arrest of the party’s candidate for the Nandigram Assembly bye-election in West Bengal as a “murder of democracy”.
“...[It] is no coincidence,” Gandhi said in a social media post. “It is political revenge [by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party].”
The Congress candidate, Milan Pradhan, was arrested on Friday in connection with a 2007 murder case, just hours after former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her faction of the Trinamool Congress would support him in the bye-election scheduled for October 6.
Mamata Banerjee’s statement had come after her faction’s candidate, Sanchita Pradhan, withdrew her nomination.
Shortly before her withdrawal, photographs of Sanchita Pradhan meeting Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had been shared online.
Banerjee had questioned the timing of Milan Pradhan’s arrest, calling it the “usual BJP formula” to “dig out an old case”.
“Just after we announced support to the Congress!” she said in a social media post. “The BJP’s politics of vendetta and atrocities shows a clear pattern.”
She also accused the Election Commission of working with the BJP to “kill democracy”.
Meanwhile, Gandhi, in a social media post on Saturday, Gandhi alleged that the ruling BJP does not want to contest elections but wants to “end the electoral fight altogether”.
“The BJP has no faith in fair elections,” he said. “That...
