Congress candidate K.N. Tripathi, who shot into limelight on the first day of polling Saturday by whipping out a gun at a booth for “self-defence”, sat on an overnight dharna outside the collectorate till Sunday evening.

Tripathi accused government officials of blatantly helping the BJP win the election and demanded a repoll in four booths. The administration refused his demand.

The BJP, on its part, on Sunday lambasted the Congress “gun culture”.

State BJP spokesperson Pratul Nath Shahdeo in Ranchi said the Indian National Congress now stands for “Indian Pistol Congress”.

But on Sunday, amid a huge crowd of supporters, Tripathi accused the officials of “taking the theka ( contract) of the government to help the BJP win”.

Among Tripathi’s main questions was why, when he was told by the administration that 400 CCTV cameras were installed at sensitive and hypersensitive booths in Daltonganj Assembly constituency, he (Tripathi) found no camera at any of the 14 booths that he listed as most vulnerable to “vote loot/ bogus voting”.

Tripathi said that he sent the list of these 14 booths to the Chief Election Commissioner in Delhi way back on November 22, “requesting the ECI to deploy CRPF at these 14 booths (it included the Koshiyara booths 72 and 73 where he went with a gun, allegedly for his own safety)”. There was no deployment of CRPF here, only home guards, he added.

“A copy of my letter addressed to the chief election commissioner has been sent to Jharkhand chief electoral officer Vinay Kumar Choubey and Palamau election officer-cum-DC. No cognisance of this letter was taken. Why?” Tripathi demanded. He added that he had WhatsApped the letter to DGP K.N. Choubey on November 29, but in vain.

Pointing out other “irregularities”, he said he did not see any videographer from the administration to cover the booth/ booths. He said he was detained for two hours at peak voting time. “Why was I detained when I walked down to the district election officer?” Tripathi asked, saying he had lost faith in the district poll officer (he did not name Shantanu Agrahari).

Palamau SP Ajay Linda told The Telegraph that apart from home guard jawans, the vulnerable booths had policemen. “No security force is idle. Everyone is on the job for peaceful polls,” the SP said.

Three FIRs were lodged with Chainpur police on November 30. The first FIR is of Tripathi’s, where he has named 12 along with 100 unidentified persons, under Section 307 (attempt to murder). The second FIR lodged is by Koshiyara village resident Shiv Prasad Chourasia who has named four people including Tripathi, charging them with confining him (Shiv Prasad) to Tripathi’s vehicle and bringing him down to Daltonganj at gunpoint. Tripathi refuted this allegation, accusing Shiv Prasad of attacking.

The third FIR is related to violation of model code of conduct lodged by sector officer Rajiv Ranjan against Tripathi. Ranjan stated that Tripathi took out his pistol to see the “ugra rukh (belligerence)” of the “janta (people)”.