BJP’s Palakkad candidate Sobha Surendran on Wednesday came under fire after Congress workers released a video allegedly showing BJP workers offering cash in exchange for votes.

The video, circulated by Congress workers, shows a woman, purportedly a BJP worker, offering something to an elderly woman before hurriedly leaving the scene. The Congress accused the BJP worker of offering money in exchange for votes and circulated a photograph of the elderly woman clutching the cash she was allegedly handed.

The Palakkad district president of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) told the media that Congress workers spotted the act while visiting a nearby house where a death had occurred a few days earlier.

“We told them that they have the right to visit any house seeking votes, but it is not right to offer money for votes at this time. That is how the issue started,” he said.

However, the BJP has denied the allegations. “In the morning, Sivankutty accused us of providing liquor. In the afternoon, the CPM and Congress alleged that we were distributing money in Palakkad,” BJP state general secretary S Suresh told the media.

“If the CPM and the Congress are making allegations competitively, it is because people have understood the situation,” he said.

“These allegations have arisen from their fear of failure,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sobha Surendran called the move a plot against her. “When I spoke to the Palakkad District Collector, he said that he had already received a complaint against me alleging that I had offered money for votes,” she said, claiming that the incident was pre-planned.

“Are you asking me not to react when a youth indulges in an act of sexual harassment against me—someone who is probably as old as his own mother?” she asked the media, alleging that the Congress worker had behaved inappropriately, which led to the verbal quarrel between the two.

She also alleged that the youth, identified as Vinesh Sarga, has 420 police cases registered against him.