Roshanlal Verma won the last elections as a BJP candidate but recently switched to Samajwadi Party
A 33-year-old woman who claims to be daughter-in-law of MLA Roshanlal Verma has decided to challenge him in the upcoming UP Assembly elections as she filed her nomination from his Tilhar assembly seat.
Sarita Yadav filed her papers on Thursday as a Rashtriya Samaj Party candidate, saying she decided to challenge Roshanlal Verma as he allegedly "harassed" Muslims and Yadavs as a former BJP MLA.
Roshanlal Verma had won the last elections as a BJP candidate but recently switched over to the Samajwadi Party which has fielded him from the seat.
Talking to reporters at the time of filing of her nomination, Sarita Yadav said she would ensure justice to the people allegedly "harassed" by Mr Verma.
She also claimed that she was getting widespread support from the public in Tilhar constituency.
When contacted over Ms Yadav's claims, Mr Verma told news agency PTI over phone that the she is working to tarnish his image.
"The woman who claims to be my daughter-in-law neither has any proof of marriage nor is known to the family. It is only to tarnish my image that she is calling herself my daughter-in-law and is contesting the election against me. It will have no impact on my image," Mr Verma said.
Mr Verma's son Vinod had died in 2019 and Sarita Yadav claims that she is his wife. Earlier in 2012, she had made many serious allegations like rape against the MLA and his son.
In 2020, Ms Yadav had sat in protest against the MLA at the collectorate and had alleged that police were not registering a case of harassment on her complaint.
The Tilhar MLA had rejected the allegations levelled by the woman, a resident of the Nigohi area of the district.
A counsel for the woman, Avdhesh Singh, had then said Ms Yadav is the "second wife" of the MLA's deceased son while his "first wife" lives at the legislator's native place.
Ms Yadav had alleged that she was forced out of the MLA's house after Vinod's death.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)