Police said SP workers tried to raise their party's flag at the statue of Maharana Pratap
Police registered an FIR against 100 Samajwadi Party workers for allegedly damaging the statue of Maharana Pratap in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri.
According to the police, the incident occurred after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh held a roadshow in support of his wife and Lok Sabha candidate Dimple Yadav on Saturday night.
"After the roadshow, some party workers came here and tried to raise their party's flag at the statue of Maharana Pratap. We are looking at the CCTV footage," Mainpuri Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar said.
A BJP worker present at the spot of the incident said that Samajwadi Party workers are aware of the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls and cannot digest the imminent defeat.
"SP goons came here, and after drinking alcohol they tried to damage the statue, Samajwadi party workers know they are being defeated and that's why they have resorted to such tactics," he said.
It is noteworthy that Dimple Yadav of the Samajwadi Party won the Mainpuri parliamentary by-election in December 2022, defeating Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the BJP by a margin of 2,88,461 votes.
Considered the SP's bastion, the seat was held by party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and it was vacated after his death on October 10. The date of voting for the Mainpuri Lok Sabha Constituency Election is May 7 (Phase 3).
In the 2019 elections, turning the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'Mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The partners in the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP, could only muster 15 seats.
The Lok Sabha polls is being held in seven phases to elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha. The results will be announced on June 4.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)