Rajkumar Chandel, a resident of Kaman village of Solan, has leveled serious allegations against BJP’s Solan candidate Sheila Kumari and challenged her Scheduled Caste (SC) status. He alleged that Sheila Kumari had changed her caste status from the earlier general category to SC to obtain undue benefits in education and politics.

He claimed that BJP candidate Sheila belongs to the Vohra community, which comes under the general category, and this fact has been proved from the revenue entries obtained by the complainant. Chandel further said she had changed her status to Koli caste at the time of gaining education and this had helped her gain benefits in education and also facilitated her in contesting the 2010 zila parishad poll as an SC candidate.

The complainant has pleaded for the registration of a case under Sections 420, 467 and 120-B of the IPC for having used fraudulent means to obtain undue financial benefits and infringe on the rights of the SC community.

The issue had also cropped up at the time of ticket allotment; however party had also dismissed it. Prior as well, the matter had also figured during the zila parishad poll in 2010, but it had been dismissed by the tehsildar. Even BJP’s general secretary and MLA Solan Rajeev Bindal has also dismissed these allegations and termed it as a “political drama” and said the Congress was indulging in such gimmicks to mislead the electorates.