Patwari said that a list of 37 polling stations where voting has been marred by violence, booth capturing and bogus voting has been submitted. “We have demanded from the Election Commission of India (ECI) re-polling at these 37 polling stations. We were confident of winning the Vijaypur by-poll by over 50,000 votes, but despite violence and unfair practices in polling, we’re certain to win the by-election by 25,000-plus votes. We’ll hold a state-wide protest on Friday to protest targeting of tribal, SC and minority voters by the BJP people,” Patwari said.The ruling BJP, however, denied the Congress state president’s allegations. State’s cabinet minister Prahlad Singh Patel said in Delhi, “It’s unimaginable why the ruling party which is confident of winning the elections will resort to violence and unfair practices. Since Congress knows that it’s losing both Vijaypur and Budhni by-elections, it’s making false allegations to dent the ruling party’s image.””For six terms our candidate in Vijaypur constituency Ramniwas Rawat was a Congress MLA from the same seat, by accusing the BJP candidate of resorting to violence and unfair practices, does the Congress want to say that he won the last six polls as Congress candidate in similar manner,” he added. The Sheopur district police superintendent (Vijaypur is part of Sheopur district) Virendra Jain, meanwhile, said that a few hours after the polling on Wednesday, some disturbance between two rival groups was reported in Gohta village.“Our teams rushed to the village but found reports of houses of a particular community having been set afire, being false. Only a large portion of Bajra straw was burning in the village. On Thursday morning, our teams again rushed to the same village on the village chowkidar’s complaint about the vandalization of a stone plaque bearing Dr BR Ambedkar’s image, which was found true. Some anti-social elements seem to have committed the act to disturb the peace in the village. A case has been registered against the unidentified accused and investigations are underway,” Jain told TNIE.Importantly, over 76% of polling was reported in Budhni and Vijaypur assembly by-polls on Wednesday in MP. In Vijaypur, six-times former Congress MLA and current forest minister in the state’s BJP government Ramniwas Rawat is the ruling party candidate against the Congress’s tribal leader Mukesh Malhotra, who is an ex-BJP leader.
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