Piqued over denial of ticket for the Assembly poll, a Bhartiya Janta Party leader from Sahjahanpur attempted self-immolation inside the party’s office on Vidhan Sabha Marg on Wednesday afternoon.
The cops on duty somehow overpowered him and took him to Hazratganj police station. He was later handed over to Sahjahnapur police for further action.
Around 12.30 pm on Wednesday, Rakesh Dubey of Chinnaur in Shahjahnapur along with his driver Ashish Kumar reached the BJP office on his SUV (UP27M/8066). After parking the vehicle outside the office, he went inside the premises while his driver waited for him.
Once inside the office pemises, Dubey started raising anti-BJP slogans and criticized some BJP big guns accusing them of being responsible for the denial of ticket to him.
As the BJP workers tred to pacify him, Dubey took out a bottle of kerosene and doused himself. But before he could set himself on fire, some BJP workers and policemen caught him and threw the bottle aside. later, a team reached the scene and took Dubey to the Hazratganj police station.
Dubey claimed that his rivals had thrown a spanner in his plan to contest the Assembly elections and some senior leaders were backing them. Claiming himself to be a winnable candidate from his constituency in Sahjahanpur, Dubey accused the leaders of harming the party.
The release of the BJP’s first list of candidates for UP Assembly polls, workers and leaders who did not get tickets have been seething. Some workers burnt the effigy of Union Minister of State for Finance Santosh Gangwar and regional organisation minister Bhawani Singh to event their angst.
The Union Minister’s kin and Bareilly district general secretary Virendra Singh Gangwar alias Veeru along with 300 supporters submitted their resignations. The agitating BJP workers alleged that the party fielded turncoats from BSP instead of party’s competent leaders. They also alleged that Gangwar and regional organisational Minister played a role in ticket distribution.
BJP leader MP Arya and his supporters also burnt the effigy of Gangwar and Bhawani Singh at Bareilly. Besides, their supporters raised slogans against state BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya and Bareilly district chief Ravindra Singh Rathor.
Dr Arya had been preparing for the elections for a long time an when he did not find his name not in list, he convened a meet of workers, sector warden and alleged that the BJP brass has allotted ticket to a history sheeter.
Bareilly district chief Ravindra Singh Rathor seemed undetrred and said that such aggression was normal during ticket distribution but burning the effigy of senior leaders was not a good thing.