File photo of Kumar Vishwas
's
Aam Aadmi Party, or the AAP, cried foul after Amethi district administration on Monday night reportedly asked the family of
Kumar Vishwas, the fledgling party's candidate from the high-profile constituency, to leave the district.
The district administration cited Election Commission rules to ask the AAP candidate's wife, children and members of his extended family to move out of the constituency by 11 pm as they were not its "registered voters". The AAP took to the social networking site, Twitter, to voice its indignation over the treatment meted out to Mr Vishwas' family by the district authorities. (
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"Police at residence of @DrKumarVishwas in Amethi. Says will arrest her wife coz she is not a voter of Amethi (sic)," AAP tweeted. "District admin & police asks my wife and sisters to leave Amethi immediately at 11pm. Can they dare to ask the same to Priyanka G & congis? (sic)," Mr Vishwas said on the micro-blogging site. (
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This morning, Mr Vishwas was asked to give a list of non-Amethi residents who would be allowed to stay and help him.
Sources in the Election Commission said that while the rules suggested that the district administration was within its right to ask all those who were not registered voters to leave the boundaries of a constituency in the interest of "free and fair voting", it was eventually left to their discretion to take a call on the eviction of such elements.
Amethi, which goes to polls on Wednesday, is set to witness a high-profile contest, with Mr Vishwas and popular TV actor
Smriti Irani of the BJP challenging Congress vice-president
Rahul Gandhi, who has been representing the constituency since 2004.