Three policemen and six supporters of an SP-RLD alliance candidate in Baghpat’s Baraut town sustained injuries in a lathi-charge on Thursday. The alliance supporters were lathi-charged after they went berserk following the victory of the BJP candidate in the constituency by a slim margin.
On Thursday, BJP’s sitting legislator from Baraut, Krishna Pal Malik defeated the SP-RLD candidate Jayveer Tomar by 320 votes. Jayveer was leading for the first seven rounds and his margin even reached a peak of 7000 votes. But as the last round was counted, when Malik was declared the winner by a slim margin, Jayveer’s supporters were infuriated.
They raised anti-BJP slogans and alleged that the local administration interfered to ensure victory of the ruling party nominee in the last round. The SP-RLD supporters forcibly tried to enter the barricaded vote counting centre which the police resisted but they resorted to stone pelting, forcing the police to use their batons.
“How is it possible that our candidate was winning by 7000 votes in the previous round and after counting of the final round, he was declared a loser with a slender margin of 329 votes.This clearly indicates that local administration manipulated counting in the last round,” said Amit Saini, a supporter of the alliance.
“The restive crowd forcibly tried to break the security corridor which forced the cops on the spot to go for a mild lathi charge to disperse them. A few of the policemen and some among the crowd have sustained injuries in the melee. The injured have been rushed to the hospital. No arrests have been made so far but those responsible for the trouble will not be spared at any cost,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, Superintendent of Police, Baghpat over the phone.