Uttarakhand polls: BJP's Yashpal Arya has accused Harish Rawat of sanctioning an attack on him.
Yashpal Arya, 10 days old in the BJP, had a close shave on Wednesday when clashes broke out while he was addressing a public meeting in Uttarakhand's Bajpur, the assembly seat he is contesting in next month's election in the state. Someone fired shots and there was also a stampede and Mr Arya, unhurt in the incident, has accused Chief Minister Harish Rawat of the Congress of sanctioning an attack on him.
Mr Arya is a prominent Dalit leader of the Uttarakhand and was a minister in the Rawat government before he became Congress leader number 12 to rebel against the Chief Minister. He is what is being called a "turncoat" in this year's election - politicians who have just defected to the BJP but have already been fielded by it in the elections, causing immense heartburn in their new party.
The BJP has 10 such candidates in Uttarakhand, where it is contesting all 70 assembly seats.
On January 16, Mr Arya along with his son, Sanjiv, was inducted into the BJP in the presence of party chief Amit Shah. Within hours the BJP confirmed that it would field both father and son in this year's election.
The BJP has alleged that Yashpal Arya was attacked in vendetta politics. "There is a conspiracy underway to kill me. I was not only fired at. Even my vehicle was pelted with stones," Mr Arya alleged.
"It reflects the frustration of the Congress and the Chief Minister," said BJP's Uttarakhand president Ajay Bhatt.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat, known to take swiftly to social media to respond to his detractors hasn't issued a statement yet, nor has his party said anything.
The BJP acquired Mr Arya as it attempts to woo the Dalit community in Uttarakhand which it hopes to wrest from the Congress. In the last election, the Congress had won 32 seats, while the BJP had won 31 in a photo-finish. The Congress formed government and Harish Rawat also managed to survive a trust vote last year.
But 10 Congress legislators who commanded power and authority in the state unit are now in the BJP.