Abohar cops resort to lathicharge to prevent clash

The police had to resort to lathicharge to disperse hundreds of people who had been camping outside the premises of the MC where polling to elect the new councillor from ward No. 22 was underway.

Madan Lal Kharera and Satish Siwan, the AAP and BJP candidates, respectively, had some argument after which their supporters were about to clash when cops sprang into action.

BJP nominee emerges winner in bypoll

BJP candidate Satish Siwan won the by-election to ward No. 22 (Reserved) of the Abohar Municipal Corporation on Saturday. He defeated his nearest rival Monu Arya of the Congress by 149 votes. AAP faced a setback as its candidate Madan Lal Kharera was pushed to the third position, while SAD nominee and ex-councillor Anil Arya, alias Dabbu, trailed at fourth. The ward saw a poll percentage of 63.46.

There were reports of some supporters having been detained. After the lathi charge, polling was hit for about half an hour. Normalcy was restored later. By the final time of 4 pm, about 64% of the electorate cast their votes.

The reserved category ward has about 2,830 voters while about a thousand people, having allegiance to different political parties, gathered outside the polling station on the Circular Road.

As the ward was always considered sensitive in the past elections and was likely to see a tough contest, cops were deployed around the polling station in large numbers. DSP Sukhwinder Singh Brar, City-1 police station incharge Manminder Singh and City-2 police station incharge Pramila Sandhu were present ever since the polling began.