Lucknow: As voting begins in Uttar Pradesh's western districts, dramatic visuals have emerged of a heated confrontation between a Samajwadi Party candidate from Deoria in eastern UP and the police.
The candidate, Pradip Yadav - contesting from Deoria's Rudrapur constituency, which votes on March 3 - was stopped by the district police chief while out campaigning yesterday evening.
The district chief, Sripati Mishra, wanted to know why Mr Yadav was accompanied by hundreds of people in violation of Covid safety rules announced by the Election Commission and the government.
To this Mr Yadav declared he could not stop people and that many had joined of their own volition. This led to a furious exchange accompanied by lots of booing and jeering.
A video shows cops can be seen standing around a white sedan with a sunroof - through which a heavily-garlanded Mr Yadav is standing.
"What is this? Have you started a 'goonda ka raj'?" a voice, presumably Mr Mishra's, can be heard as the video zooms in on Mr Yadav.
"In a democracy everyone has the right to take part in the political process. You cannot stop this," the Samajwadi leader responds, to which the police officer reminds him of Covid protocols.
"Please remember governments come and go," Mr Yadav retorts.
The police chief then appears to order Mr Yadav to exit the car, at which point those following him start shouting. The video pans to show dozens of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder around Mr Yadav's car, and they start screaming and gesticulating furiously.
Neither Mr Yadav nor those who seemed to be following him were wearing face masks.
Later Mr Yadav told reporters: "Some people were waiting to welcome me. What could I do? Police were acting on orders from the BJP... all these officials are BJP agents. I warned the police that the Akhilesh Yadav government will come and we will take care of them."
Meanwhile, in a video statement, Rajesh Sonkar, the Additional SP of Deoria Police, said that Mr Yadav and 15 others have been named in a case for violation of Covid norms.
Mr Sonkar also said 400 other unidentified persons had also been named in the case.
UP is voting for a new government in a seven-phase election that begins today. Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which is leading a 'rainbow' alliance of regional outfits, is widely seen as the ruling BJP's biggest challenger.