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Bharwaj did not take his seat in the legislature Thursday and did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The allegations stem from a Progressive Conservative nomination battle in the southeast riding of Edmonton-Ellerslie. A nomination race occurs when more than one person wants to be the candidate for a political party in a provincial election.

He further said if we don’t want cash, then Mr. (Sukhjeevan) Chahal will buy vacation package for us, for a trip to India, so nobody will suspect the money was in exchange for signing the pre-drafted affidavit

In this case, two-term MLA Bhardwaj was facing a challenge from Balraj Manhas, the popular president of the United Cabbies Association of Edmonton. The winner would run as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie.

Manhas said he received a call from the party days before the nomination vote and was told the signatures on his nomination forms were invalid.

“I said: ‘I can get you the information from all of those people who signed … I can get you affidavits if you want,’ Manhas said. “He said…: ‘You have only five minutes, you have to decide right now.’

Manhas dropped out of the race.

He used my sworn statement to cancel the nomination of Balraj Manhas and I was not aware of this fact before giving my sworn statement

Manhas said he later learned Bhardwaj had somehow obtained a list of the people who had signed his nomination forms, then approached them and asked them to withdraw their support.

In a sworn statement obtained by the Journal, Balvir Sidhu alleges Bhardwaj offered him $10,000 to sign an affidavit and claim he and three family members “never signed the nomination papers of Balraj Manhas.”

“He further said if we don’t want cash, then Mr. (Sukhjeevan) Chahal will buy vacation package for us, for a trip to India, so nobody will suspect the money was in exchange for signing the pre-drafted affidavit,” Sidhu alleges.