Rajasthan Independent candidate for Deoli-Uniara bypoll slaps election official

    Jaipur, Nov 13 (PTI) An Independent candidate for the Deoli-Uniara assembly bypoll allegedly slapped a sub-divisional officer engaged in election duty as area magistrate on Wednesday, officials said.
    Following the incident, a Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) association demanded that the candidate be arrested for hitting Malpura SDM Amit Chaudhary. It threatened a pen-down strike if he was not arrested by Thursday morning.
    On the other hand, the candidate, Naresh Meena, sat on a dharna in Samravta village and asked his supporters to gather there.
    The dharna turned violent when police tried to remove Meena and his supporters, who pelted stones at police personnel and set two vehicles on fire, according to officials.
    Voting for the bypolls to seven assembly seats in Rajasthan was held on Wednesday.
    Meena, a Congress rebel, allegedly caught Chaudhary by his collar and slapped him, an official said.
    District election officer and Tonk Collector Saumya Jha said the residents of Samravta village had announced they would boycott the bypoll and Meena supported them.
    "The village currently comes under Nagar Fort tehsil. The villagers are demanding that it be brought under Uniara tehsil, which is closer," she said.
    Chaudhary, the area magistrate for the bypoll, had gone to the village to convince people to cast their votes when Meena slapped him, Jha said.
    On the villagers' demand, she said it was raised a few days ago and they were told that the matter would be taken up after the model code of conduct is lifted.
    The Rajasthan Administrative Service Council held a meeting in the evening. Its general secretary Neetu Rajeshwar said RAS officers will boycott government work through a pen-down strike if Meena is not arrested by Thursday morning.
    Meena challenged the administration and sat on a dharna in Samravta. He called on his supporters to gather in the village in large numbers with sticks to mount pressure on the administration.
    He also asked residents of Deoli-Uniara constituency to reach the dharna site with their complaints related to road or water and said that they would be presented to district collectors there.
    Meena's supporters turned violent when police tried to remove them from the dharna site. They pelted police personnel with stones and set two vehicles ablaze, police said.
    Police lobbed tear gas shells to control the situation, they said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)