PALAMAU: It is a danger to the democracy, if a candidate is not allowed to see whether things are working well or not at the booth, as the Constitution of India permits him or her. According to reports, BJP candidate Alok Chaurasiya's supporters had allegedly prevented Tripathi from entering the polling booth and had pelted stones at his convoy.
The clash took place at Koshiyara polling booth in Chainpur block of Daltonganj assembly constituency in Palamu district. However, no casualty was reported and election officials claimed that the poll process was unaffected by the incident. Polling is underway in the first phase of elections to 13 of the 81 seats of the Jharkhand legislative assembly.
BJP supporters allegedly attacked Tripathi's convoy and pelted stones on it after the Congress candidate reached booth number 72 and 73 at Upgraded Middle School at Koshiyara. Chaurasia's supporters allegedly prevented him from entering booth, surrounded him from all sides and started abusing his supporters. Later, Tripathi was seen in a widely shared video brandishing a pistol in his defence in a bid to escape mob's fury.
The area where the incident happened is supposed to be a monopoly of the BJP candidate Alok Chaurasia, where his supporters also chased Tripathi, pelting stones at his convoy breaking the window panes of three of his vehicles. Tripathi's bodyguards somehow managed to keep the mob at bay and evacuate him. The Congress and the BJP candidates traded charges after the violence.
“I just escaped a deadly attack by Chaurasia's supporters. They crushed my Fortuner vehicle. I somehow managed to escape away. I informed the election commission, senior police and civil officers about extremely poor security arrangements there. Only home guards were deployed at highly sensitive booths to ensure booth capturing by the ruling party candidate, Tripathi alleges. The administration helped the ruling party capture at least eight booths in my constituency,” Tripathi told 'The Garhwa Post' over the phone.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders alleged that the Congress candidate was trying to intimidate voters to influence voting. A BJP spokesperson said, “The occurrence demonstrates that the Congress candidate has lost faith on ballot and is relying on bullets to win the election. We demand from election commission of India to take action against him.”
Police officials did not take 'The Garhwa Post's calls. The state election commission has taken cognizance of the incident and has sought a detailed probe report from the Palamu district administration in this regard.
