BJP names candidates for UP parliamentary, assembly by-polls
Lucknow, May 8: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday announced its candidates for the Kairana parliamentary seat and the Noorpur assembly seat, where polling is scheduled to be held on May 28.
The Kairana seat in western Uttar Pradesh fell vacant after the death of incumbent MP and veteran BJP leader Hukum Singh while the by-poll in Noorpur in Bijnore district was necessitated after the sitting legislator Lokendra Singh Chauhan of the BJP died in a car accident in February.
A BJP spokesman said Avani Singh, widow of Chauhan, is the party candidate from Noorpur while Mriganka Singh, daughter of Hukum Singh, has been named from Kairana.
Both the candidates are likely to file their nomination papers within the next two days, a party leader told IANS.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has fielded Naimul Hasan as its candidate from Noorpur while former MP Tabassum Hasan is the joint candidate of the opposition in the Kairana parliamentary seat.
She will be contesting on the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket.
The Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh's RLD have thrashed out a formula here to combine the traditional arch rivals -- Jats and Muslims -- to oust the BJP.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are not contesting the polls and are likely to extend their support to the opposition candidates.
The votes will be counted on May 31.
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BJP writes to EC about 'non-deployment' of central forces to avert clash
Kolkata (PTI): The BJP on Sunday wrote to the Election Commission alleging that its workers were not given security and came under attack while travelling to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Brigade Parade Ground on March 14 and sought action over the alleged non-deployment of central forces by police.
In a letter to the poll panel, BJP leader Shishir Bajoria claimed that buses carrying party workers to the rally were targeted with bricks in the Girish Park area of north Kolkata, leaving several activists injured, some of whom were hospitalised.
Trouble broke out in the area when BJP activists objected to the putting up of flexes which read 'Boycott BJP', before the house of state minister Shashi Panja and tore down the flexes. Heavy brick batting followed as both sides regrouped along Central Avenue, and the window panes on the ground-floor room of Panja's residence were damaged in stone pelting.
The minister claimed she and several of her party members were injured in the brickbatting by rally-bound BJP supporters.
In the letter, the BJP alleged that despite a substantial deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) ahead of the elections, the forces were not present at the site of the disturbance to ensure the safety of its workers and leaders.
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Putting the onus on TMC for the violence, the letter said, "A large number of buses bringing BJP 'karyakartas' to attend the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Brigade Parade Ground were subjected to large-scale brick-batting and violence, resulting in several BJP leaders sustaining injuries, many of whom had to be hospitalised."
Attaching purported photos and videos of the clash to back up their claims of TMC instigation, the letter said: "What was particularly of grave concern was that despite a big deployment of CAPF well before the polls, their complete absence at the spot during the disturbance, or in any part of the city of Kolkata."
"We would like to put on record that the presence of Kolkata Police at the spot of disturbance establishes the fact that they had an advance intelligence report of possible violence and yet kept the CAPF out," the BJP leader said in the letter to the CEC Gyanesh Kumar, and Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal.
"Given the seriousness of the incident and the injuries sustained by several of our karyakarta, it raises concerns among citizens regarding the effective deployment of CAPF for preventing violence, and ensuring a free and fair electoral environment," the letter said.
"We request your good office to kindly take the strongest possible action against those who were responsible for this non-deployment of CAPF, resulting in this incident and ensure that in future deployment is carried out in a manner that truly serves its intended purpose of area domination, confidence building, and timely intervention wherever law and order situations arises from now till the elections are over," the letter said.
The BJP also reminded the commission that a party delegation had earlier met the full bench of the poll body on March 9 and raised concerns that CAPF personnel were being deployed for route marches in peaceful areas and highways instead of in locations requiring voter confidence-building measures.
At least eight persons, including a police officer, were injured in brickbatting, which broke out half an hour before the arrival of the Prime Minister at the Brigade Rally. The clash continued for about an hour as both sides fought a pitched battle on the road and nearby by-lanes before reinforcements brought the situation under control.
