Samagra news: Few people in India will recall that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections Hema Malini contested against Hema Malini in Mathura.
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Or that in 2019, Rahul Gandhi was pitted against another Rahul Gandhi, and even a Raghul Gandhi, in Wayanad.
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These dummy candidates might be commonplace in India and might even provide comic relief to our gruelling electoral drama. But thousands of miles away, a similar dummy candidate in a remote part of the United States – in Alaska – has triggered a political firestorm ahead of the crucial mid-term elections that will virtually be a referendum on President Donald Trump’s policies and popularity.
And Trump is milking the controversy, apparently triggered by the Democrats’ dirty tricks department, to his maximum advantage.
According to almost all opinion polls, Trump’s Republican Party is trailing nationwide in the Nov. 3 elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate, the two chambers of Congress or parliament, including in Republican strongholds like Alaska. In that detached-from-the-mainland state, Republican candidate for Senate, incumbent Daniel Sullivan, is facing a tough fight against Democrat candidate Mary Peltola.
As if that was not enough, a third candidate on the ballot is also named Daniel Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher. That in itself was not a big deal until the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the teacher Sullivan’s candidature was the result of a coordinated effort by Peltola’s team.
Immediately, Trump cried foul and ordered a Justice Department investigation into alleged voter fraud. The Trump administration’s contention is that the Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters by recruiting a dummy candidate to siphon votes from the Republican Sullivan.
“This is Voter Fraud at the Highest Level … this behavior in our Elections cannot be allowed to continue,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, and called for Peltola to be “removed from the ballot and prosecuted.”
On Thursday, CNN reported that the Justice Department “has dramatically accelerated a criminal probe” into the case, issuing dozens of new grand jury subpoenas and homing in on new potential charges.
