Guj LS poll: Cong says Shah hid Rs 25 cr loan detail in

The Congress Friday accused BJP national president Amit Shah of concealing facts in his poll affidavit submitted along with his nomination papers for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The Congress' candidate from the seat, CJ Chavda, demanded that Shah be disqualified.

District Election Officer S K Langa rejected Chavda's plea.

During the scrutiny process held at Gandhinagar on Friday, Chavda raised an objection about Shah's candidature, claiming the BJP chief's affidavit did not reflect a loan of Rs 25 crore taken in 2016 after mortgaging property.

According to Chavda, when Shah was fighting Rajya Sabha polls, he had declared that he had mortgaged his property in 2016 for getting a bank loan of Rs 25 crore for his son Jay Shah's company.

"Rs 25 crore is a significant liability which has not been mentioned in the latest affidavit. Shah's nomination form should be rejected for wilful and deliberate non-disclosure," Chavda said in his written submission, which was eventually rejected during the scrutiny.

Attacking the Congress over the allegations, BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said the opposition party and its candidate were trying to malign Shah's image.

"It seems that Congress leaders are unaware about the basics of elections. That loan was already paid and the mortgaged property was also released. Without doing any inquiry, the Congress raised an objection, which was nothing but a childish act. It was a deliberate attempt to malign Shah's image," said Pandya.

"Since the objection raised by Congress was not maintainable, it was rejected by the election officer. Shah's form was legally valid and it was accepted by the authorities. The allegations of Congress were baseless and false," Pandya added.