Sacked BSF jawan to file nomination on April 24

Varanasi: Sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav, who has announced to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, is inviting people to be part of his ‘namankan yatra’ (march for nomination filing) on April 24, a day before Modi will take out a road show in the city. Modi will file his nomination papers on April 26.
Yadav has claimed that his fight is not aimed against any individual. “We are not against Modi ji or BJP... we are not against anybody. Our fight is against the country’s rotten system.”

Yadav is contacting people through handbills and social media. Besides, he has also appealed for crowdfunding to meet the expenses of his poll campaign. In two days, he has raised just Rs. 12,150 against a target of Rs. 70 lakh.

“I am approaching people using my limited resources,” he told TOI on Monday, adding that he would start door-to-door campaign just after filing his nomination papers.

“Area-wise teams of poll campaigners are being constituted for electioneering. We have also created a website for crowd-funding, appealing people to contribute generously to meet poll campaign expenses. I have spent 21 years of my life serving my country honestly. I do not have money to spend on election campaign against Modiji,” he added.

In his appeal, Yadav has justified his poll battle against Modi. “The PM made many promises, but fulfilled none. Although he (Modi) had earlier stated that pension would be restored in BSF, he did nothing about it. He also promised that BSF jawans would be awarded the status of martyrs, but there has been no progress in this regard,” said Yadav.

He further stated that the country felt that if he (Modi) came to power, he would greatly strengthen the armed forces. “What happened was just the opposite. Since he came to power, the number of martyred jawans has been the highest.”

Yadav alleged that a large number of paramilitary jawans have committed suicide in the last one year. “The rules being followed have resulted in the ill-treatment of jawans and driven many to suicide,” he said adding, “After I raised the issue of inferior quality of food provided to us by posting a video online, the use of mobile phone was disallowed.”