Palakkad

Congressalleged that Sobha Surendran, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate of the Palakkad constituency in Kerala, was “caught red-handed distributing” cash to voters ahead of April 9 elections to the state assembly.

Surendran denied the allegations, calling them “fabricated” to defeat her.

She alleged that a local Congress leader and a journalist of a TV channel were behind the allegations, and she would be filing a police case against them. The BJP leader claimed that a video aired on TV channels, showing some women “offering something” to an elderly woman in her constituency, was wrongly projected by the Congress and the journalist to allege that she offered money for votes.

Visuals aired on TV channels show a woman offering something to the elderly woman, and thereafter, another group goes to her and opens her hand to reveal a small roll of Rs 500 currency notes. Based on the video, it was alleged that the elderly woman was given money by someone in the BJP candidate’s campaign team.

However, the elderly woman denied having received any money, but admitted to having asked for Rs 5,000 for buying medicines.