Videos showing a senior Uttar Pradesh police officer narrating how he was slapped by people who were carrying sticks, bricks and bombs.
A Congress leader pointing to the torn papers and broken bangles of his wife who was prevented from filing her nomination for the heartland state’s block pramukh elections, held on Saturday.
A BJP leader and a supporter of a ruling party MP being arrested after being accused of pulling the saris of a woman candidate and her proposer. An IAS officer assaulting a journalist.
These will remain some of the abiding images of the local body election, marred by violence and abductions of block development council members — the sole voters in the election.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said India had never witnessed this kind of anarchy in any election.
“When did we see elections of this kind? Kidnappings, threats, blackmail, violence, attacks on women — what is going on?” she told The Telegraph.
“In the 21st century, we want blood on the streets, women being disrobed, goons running amok with guns and bombs? If the BJP can go to this extent in local polls, imagine what they will do in the Assembly elections?”
Saturday’s elections were held to elect the heads of the block development councils (BDCs), the second tier of the panchayat system. Earlier, violence had been reported during the polls to elect the chiefs of the top tier, zilla panchayats.
The BJP had performed badly in the April polls to elect panchayat members but has since then managed to win the majority of zilla (district) heads and, according to chief minister Yogi Adityanath, has now won most of the block pramukh posts.
Shrinate dismissed the BJP’s claim that local body polls under Samajwadi Party rule too had witnessed extreme violence and coercion, and that the violence was worse during the recent Bengal Assembly polls.
“What the country witnessed in Uttar Pradesh is unprecedented. And if violence happened in the past, should that be an inspiration?” Shrinate said.
“Violence was always wrong and must stop. What is shocking is that the violence is happening under State patronage; police are either helping the goons or watching silently. The buck stops with the chief minister — he has to take responsibility.”
Congress leaders recalled how the BJP had kicked up a row over the post-poll violence in Bengal, with the governor running a campaign against the state government and the Prime Minister and Union home minister getting involved.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Violence has been renamed masterstroke in Uttar Pradesh.”
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted on Friday: “Some years ago, a rape victim raised her voice against the BJP MLA who was involved. There were attempts to finish off her entire family. Today, the BJP crossed all limits to stop a woman from filing nomination. The same government, the same behaviour.”
The state Congress posted a video in which party general secretary Vidit Chowdhary described how his wife Sangeeta had been stopped from filing her nomination.
“She had already filed the first set of papers. It was taken out by some people and torn. They manhandled her; you can see the broken pieces of bangles and injuries on her neck and hands,” Chowdhary says. “The second set of papers was torn by the BJP MLA, Devendra Singh Lodhi, himself. When we tried submitting the third set, they said the time was over.”
Shrinate said: “What is the message we are sending? With great difficulty, women step out to enter public life and you are indulging in such violence to tell (them) to stay indoors? This is a step against women’s empowerment.
“The world has seen that video in which goons tried to disrobe a woman. If this can be done to an elected representative, imagine what ordinary women would be facing daily. It’s shameful that the BJP’s top leadership is silent. The BJP has 11 women MPs and four women ministers from Uttar Pradesh, and none cared to utter a word.”
