Electoral battles among kith and kin muddying Tilhar poll waters

After Tilhar’s sitting BJP MLA Roshan Lal Verma jumped into the fray as an SP candidate after switching sides, a woman, Sarita Yadav who had been claiming herself to be married to his son, threw her hat into the ring.

Muddying the poll field further, Kushwaha’s brother Ravindra Kushwaha jumped into and fray and filed his nomination paper on Saturday, accusing his sister of driving his family out on the road.

“I am the real brother of BJP candidate Salona Kushwaha and I have filed nomination because she has exploited us a lot, our family and our children have come on the road,” Ravendra Kushwaha told reporters on Saturday after filing his nomination.

“We are being threatened by Salona’s goons that after winning the election, she would make our life hell. What will happen to the general public if a sister could not be faithful to her brother? I am contesting only because of this,” he said.

Salona Kushwaha, however, denied his allegation.

“I got married a long time ago and I have nothing to do with my brother’s family. Why should I threaten them?” she told PTI over the phone.

Sarita Yadav, who claims herself to be the widow of Verma’s son Vinod Verma who died in 2019, jumped into the fray against SP candidate Verma, alleging that “as a BJP MLA, he harassed Muslims and Yadavs” whose support he is seeking now.

“I am fighting the election to ensure justice to them,” she told reporters on Friday after filing her nomination paper.

“I am also getting wide public support in the Tilhar assembly,” she claimed.

When asked about Yadav’s allegation against him, Verma told PTI that “her claim of being my daughter-in-law is false. She has nothing to prove it.”

“She is projecting herself as my daughter-in-law as part of a conspiracy to malign my image and has stood against me in the election to harm my image,” he said.