A video of the stick assault on the middle of a busy road was shared widely on social media.
A newly elected panchayat member at a village in Madhya Pradesh was hit with sticks and kicked and punched by a group of men on Friday. The incident happened at a village in Sehore district after the results of the zilla panchayat elections came.
The Panch Rakesh Lodhi, was taking stock of the administrative tasks he needed to along with some of his aides when a group of some five men led by a Mahesh Lodhi came with sticks and started thrashing him.
A video of the stick assault on the middle of a busy road was shared widely on social media.
The video shows Rakesh curled up on the road as blows after blows land on his back, stomach and head. He tries to shield himself, but the attackers just won't stop.
A case has been filed and Rakesh and one of his aides, Sonu, has been hospitalised, the police said.
The ruling BJP won a resounding victory in the recent panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh while the Congress received a drubbing, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday.
Congress too has claimed to have performed well in the elections which were not held on party symbols. Mr Chouhan challenged the opposition party to release a list of winning candidates affiliated to it.
"BJP emerged victorious in a one-sided manner in all three local bodies. People have supported the party in a major way in villages, towns and cities," Mr Chouhan told news agency PTI at his home as the results of zila panchayat presidents came in.
Out of 23,000 village panchayats, BJP-supported candidates won the post of sarpanch in 90 per cent or 20,613 places, he said.
Some 625 BJP-supported candidates won unopposed, he added.