BJP jolted as Solapur MP’s caste certificate found ‘fake’

In a severe jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Maharashtra government’s caste validity committee has rejected the caste certificate submitted along with his election affidavit by the sitting BJP MP Jaisiddheshwar Shivacharya Swami, raising a question mark over his continuing as a Lok Sabha Member, here on Monday.

The 3-member committee presided over by Gyandev Sul and comprising Chhaya Gadekar and Santosh Jadhav, in its order of Feb. 20, dismissed the claim of Swami and struck down his caste certificate issued in Jan. 1982 as ‘invalid’.

Ruling that the Swami had submitted a ‘fake certificate’ in his election affidavit, the committee has directed the Akkalkot (Solapur) district authorities to initiate appropriate legal proceedings against him in the matter.

Last June, following a complaint lodged by the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Pramod R. Gaikwad and two others, Vinayak B. Kandkure and Milind M. Mule, questioning Swami’s election affidavit, the committee had slapped a show-cause notice on the Swami.

Gaikwad had questioned the claims of the Swami and his caste certificate showing that he belongs to the ‘Beda Jangam’ community which comes under the Scheduled Caste category, while his nephew Yogeshwar Siddhamayala belongs to the ‘Hindu Beda Jangam’ community which falls under the OBC category.

Gaikwad had alleged in his complaint that the Swami had submitted a fraudulent caste certificate in his election affidavit for the Solapur seat which is reserved for the SC community.

“How can two persons hailing from the same family belong to and have different caste certificates, and the Election Commission of India should disqualify him,” Gaikwad had demanded then.

VBA President Ambedkar had said that if the caste certificate case is proved correct, then his party would knock the doors of ECI demanding Swami should be disqualified and fresh elections must be conducted for Solapur Lok Sabha seat.

It may be recalled that in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s candidate Swami had defeated Congress strongman and former CM and union home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ambedkar with a considerable margin.

While Swami secured around 5.25 lakh votes, Shinde was the runner-up in his stronghold with 3.66 lakh votes followed by Ambedkar with 1.70 lakh votes and 6000-plus voting for NOTA.

Incidentally, prior to the election, the VBA, Congress and other parties had raised questions over the validity of the BJP candidate’s caste certificate, but the election authorities had rejected their contentions.

Meanwhile, as uncertainties plagued Swami’s continuing as a Lok Sabha MP following the drawback, hectic politicking erupted within the BJP and the ruling Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress to contest the by-poll for Solapur as and when it is announced by the ECI.-IANS News