Will youth leader’s murder cast shadow on Cong chances in Latur?
LATUR: The murder of a 26-yearold general secretary of the youth Congress in Latur last month could cast a shadow over the party’s prospects in the Lok Sabha elections here, with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party flagging it as a national poll issue.
Kalpana Giri left home on March 21 to attend the birthday celebration of Amit Deshmukh, legislator and son of the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, and never returned home. Her body was found three days later in Tuljapur lake, 60km from her home in the city. The accused in the case are city youth Congress chief Mahendra Singh Chauhan and his aide Sameer Killarikar, both of whom were Giri’s colleagues.
The murder has put the Deshmukhs, called the first family of Latur, in an embarrassing spot. Mahendra is the son of Vikram Singh Chauhan, who has been active in city Congress politics for a decade and is considered close to party leader Dilip, brother of the late Vilasrao.
With Giri’s family alleging the active role of the Congress in trying to shield the culprits, the issue could hit the party as well as Amit, who is fighting to protect his father’s home turf.
The issue is set to gain prominence when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi addresses a rally here on Monday.
“I want to ask Gandhi if he would take the strictest action possible against Mahendra,” Giri’s elder brother, Ganesh, said. “Or is justice only the privilege of sons of big leaders and not for backward caste workers of the party like my sister? Is this what he means by democratisation of power?’’
In Giri’s 20x20 feet ground floor house, her father, a 65-yearold ex-serviceman, Mangal Giri recounted his daughter’s flair for politics and leadership skills. He took out two polythene bags full of her certificates and medals even as her mother, Pushpa, alleged this was a planned abduction, rape and murder.
“She wanted to go ahead in politics, perhaps become a legislator, but she was being sidelined,” she said. “She had complained of threat to her life and asked us not to talk much to these people, including the accused. There are others, perhaps his friends, involved in this killing. We want them to be caught and hanged.’’
The parents alleged their daughter was raped and tor- tured, but the post-mortem report was inconclusive. ‘’I saw the body, her tongue was out, face was blackened, eyes were popping out, (there were) injury marks on her private parts... this can’t be caused by drowning,” Pushpa said. “There is political pressure on the police. Investigation can’t be fair till it’s handed over to the CBI.’’
The parents said party leaders, especially the Deshmukhs, came to see them a week after the incident. According to them, Giri was asked to sit out of the elections to the city unit this year as another woman was given a ticket. She contested despite this and won.
The BJP has hijacked the issue with its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi coining the ‘Tandoor to Latur’ phrase to attack the ruling alliance on the issue of women’s safety. Earlier this week, he met the Giris on the dais during his rally here.