UP bypolls: Newly elected RLD MLA stopped from visiting his Assembly constituency Khatauli
Muzaffarnagar (UP), December 10
The newly elected Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA from Khatauli on Saturday said he was stopped from visiting Khatauli tehsil by the district administration, which cited law and order situation as the reason behind the decision.
RLD leader Madan Bhaiya called the incident “murder of democracy”.
Khatauli Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Jeet Singh cited prohibitory orders in the district as the reason behind the move.
“Considering the law and order situation Madan Bhaiya was not allowed to go to Khatauli to participate in a public meeting. It was done on the apprehension that the meeting could lead to breach of peace due to the gathering of a large number of his supporters,” SDM told PTI.
Neither Madan Bhaiya nor any of his representatives had sought permission in advance from the local administration to hold a gathering in Khatauli and they reached here with a cavalcade of over two dozen vehicles and nearly 100 men, he said.
Madan Bhaiya, who defeated his BJP rival, Rajkumari Saini, by a margin of more than 22,000 votes in the recent by-poll in the Khatauli assembly constituency, was visiting the district for the first time after his win.
The RLD is an ally of the Samajwadi Party.
“I was going to meet the people of Khatauli who gave me their vote and elected me to thank them,” he said.
“The way the local administration acted by halting me is akin to murder of democracy. It is for the first time that an elected representative is being stopped from going to his own constituency,” the RLD MLA said.
He said he along with his other supporters was stopped at Bhangela check post in the presence of local police, Rapid Action Force (RAF) and senior police and civil administration officials.
Taking an oblique dig at local BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar and Union Minister of State of Animal Husbandry Sanjeev Balyan, he said, “The local administration is acting on his direction.” “I was stopped on the direction of an elected representative of Muzzafarnagar, and not from Lucknow. I will write to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about it. My party will also raise this issue in the assembly,” he added.
