The Bulandshahr Police on Sunday lodged FIRs under section 307 (attempt to murder) on Monday after the Azad Samaj Party (ASP) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) accused each other of attacks on their party chief and party candidate respectively during campaigning for the Bulandshahr Sadar bypoll .
Police sources said while the AIMIM candidate Dilshad Ahmed had named the ASP in the complaint, the latter had blamed unidentified persons for the attack.
The incident gained traction late after ASP chief Chandrashekhar Azad tweeted that his convoy had been fired upon by unidentified men in Bulandshahr when he was campaigning in the old city area. He said their rivals had committed the cowardly act worried by the rise of the party.
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Madan Pal Gautam, the district president of ASP, who had lodged the complaint, said the incident occurred when Mr. Azad was campaigning for the candidate Haji Yamin near the Maniharan Chowk area of the old city.
'Worried rivals'
“I was part of the convoy and heard 5-6 gunshots. We don’t know what party the assailants belonged to. It is for the police to investigate. Our rivals are worried about increasing voter base of the party. They want to silence us but we will continue our struggle for the deprived,” he said.
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However, Dilshad Ahmed, the AIMIM candidate for the seat, said he was holding a meeting in the area when the members of the ASP attacked his party workers and fired in the air. “My clothes were torn off and chairs were thrown at us. I had to run to save my life. The brother of the ASP candidate has a criminal record and he has brought his cronies to Bulandshahr. I appeal to the administration to provide me security,” he told reporters.
SSP, Bulandshahr Santosh Kumar Singh, however, said the skirmish was more incidental than deliberate.
“There was no firing from either side. We have videos of party workers from both sides where they deny that shots were fired. The locality is so congested that had there been firing, it would not have gone unnoticed,” said Mr. Singh. “It was a minor incident that happened because the ASP convoy reached the same lane where AIMIM candidate was holding a meeting. There was a wedding in the area as well. As the lane got blocked, the ASP workers started throwing chairs which led to a heated argument and pushing and shoving,” he explained.
Mr Singh claimed it was Mr Azaad’s tweet that created a buzz around the incident. “So, I urged both the parties to lodge complaints .”
Local sources say the Bahujan Samaj Party, ASP, and AIMIM have all picked candidates from the Qureshi community for the bypoll.