Palakkad, April 8 (IANS) NDA candidate Sobha Surendran has strongly denied allegations that a BJP worker distributed money to a voter in Kerala’s Palakkad area, terming the charge a “scripted attempt” to malign her during the final phase of campaigning for the Assembly polls.

The BJP leader asserted that she would pursue the matter legally, including filing a police complaint against a media organisation and its reporter, whom she accused of conspiring to damage her public image.

Addressing the media, Sobha maintained that her visit to Kannadi panchayat had nothing to do with electioneering malpractice and was solely to meet a cancer patient.

She dismissed the accusations as baseless and politically-motivated, claiming that her growing acceptance among voters had unsettled her opponents.

“Votes will be sought only on the basis of politics and development. I will not withdraw from this stand until the truth is established,” she said.

The BJP leader also alleged that Congress workers followed her vehicle during the visit, prompting her to question their actions.

According to her, the situation escalated when one of the individuals accompanying the car made an inappropriate gesture. “If anyone behaves in a manner that would offend a woman, I will question it. That is exactly what I did,” she said, claiming that such incidents were being orchestrated in anticipation of a BJP victory in Palakkad.

Her response comes amid a politically-charged atmosphere in the constituency, where allegations and counter-allegations have intensified ahead of polling.

A firebrand leader of the BJP in Kerala, Sobha Surendran has been a prominent face of the party in multiple electoral battles.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sobha Surendran contested from Alappuzha and, despite finishing third in the contest, she succeeded in improving the party’s vote share.

Earlier, in the 2021 Assembly elections she secured a strong second-place finish in the Kazhakootam constituency, underlining her electoral significance within the party’s state unit.

–IANS

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