After the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, now the battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party is going on for the Legislative Council elections. MLC elections are to be held for a total of 36 seats in the state. Meanwhile, in Etah, a case of snatching and assaulting SP candidate Udayveer Singh has come to the fore. The incident happened on Monday. Udayveer, a close aide of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, had reached the collectorate premises for nomination from the Etah-Mainpuri-Mathura local body seat. As soon as he reached the gate, some unknown people snatched his paper and tore it. Now the statement of the SP candidate has come to the fore.
Udayveer has made serious allegations against the police and the BJP. He said, “On the first day when we filed the first set, the Returning Officer (RO) made a wrong observation that it was not in the correct format. Correct it and give it. While the affidavit was in the right format, but we are okay with it. When we went to give the papers again, as soon as we got down in front of the collectorate, there were many people present, who snatched us and Rakesh Yadav’s form from the lawyer and ran away. People caught the one who had snatched it. The police beat up the catchers and chased away the person who snatched the paper.
He said, “The gate of the collectorate was occupied by BJP people. The police were outside and the workers were inside. They were not ready to open the gate and listen to the police. After a long time, somehow three people were allowed in the gate. When we reached near Aaro’s office, there were at least 100 people there. They were abusing and saying that they will not be allowed inside. Only 20 minutes were left. He started a scuffle and did not allow anyone to reach him by pushing. Aro’s office was closed that day. We complained to the Election Commission.”
Udayveer further alleged, “A delegation of ours met the State Election Commission in Lucknow. Our senior leaders spoke to the Election Commission in Delhi. Both the candidates themselves met the supervisor Narendra Yadav there. We told the whole story. We asked them to collect our affidavit and submit it. Because when the collectorate and ARO office is occupied by BJP people, where only proposers and candidates can go, there are already 100-100 people sitting. What will we do if the police is not doing anything? He assured us that it will not happen tomorrow. We spoke to the SSP in the evening. They stopped picking up our phone calls since night. We called them 20 times but they did not pick up. Spoke to DM in the morning. He said there would be no problem.”
Udayveer further said, “The next day we went there with the assurance of the Election Commission, DM and District Magistrate. We had already received information that there are BJP people with the police outside the collectorate office. Will pelt stones, your life is in danger, don’t go, but we have gone. The cars ahead of us left. Stones were pelted on the two rear vehicles.”
Udayveer also said, “We reached the barricade. ASP was there. They got us entered and said that only proposers and candidates will go. Your government gunners won’t go either. When all three of us reached inside, first BJP candidates, BJP MLAs, block chiefs, many councilors and many others were sitting there. As soon as he left he said that we have come first and we will go first. You just stand here until we leave. We said that if you want to go, then go, anyone can go to the office of others at any time. They will be called according to the order there is, but they will not listen and start scuffles.
Udayveer further said, “Our other partner Rakesh Yadav was pushed back by him. We somehow got out of them and tried to reach the collectorate gate by running. The gate was already closed by the police. Hundreds of policemen were present. When I ran to the collectorate gate, the policemen stopped me. They gave me in the hands of BJP people. 200-250 policemen kept watching the spectacle. He tore my kurta. I had an affidavit in the kurta torn it. After that we were pushed back and sent back.
Udayveer also said, “Then we reached near the barricade. This went on for about 20 minutes. It was about 11 o’clock when the Additional SP said there, let me take you. We said you took the time. He said that if you do not want to go, then refuse. Then Aro went to the office. We got a set. Aro did not do any scrutiny of the pamphlet in front of us and said you guys go. We will let you know our decision. Later we came to know that the prescription was rejected.”