Rajasthan: RAS Association demands action against Independent candidate who slapped SDM

Jaipur(The Uttam Hindu): RAS Association in Rajasthan on Wednesday demanded action against the Independent candidate Naresh Meena who slapped Sub Divisional Officer (SDM) Amit Chaudhary.

The incident took place in the Deoli-Uniyara Assembly seat of Tonk district during bypolls on Wednesday.

Earlier, Independent candidate Naresh Meena, assaulted and slapped SDM Amit Chaudhary posted on duty, accusing him of blurring the election symbol on the EVM machines.

Meanwhile, RAS Association Secretary Neetu Rajeshwari said that she met Chief Secretary Sudhanshu Pant, ACS Home Anand Kumar and Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan regarding the incident and submitted a memorandum.

She requested to take action against Naresh Meena. "Arrest him. If he is not arrested, a pen-down strike will be held on Thursday,” said another employee organisation while coming out in open support of the strike of the RAS Association.

Naresh Meena defended his objectionable act, saying that this was an answer to the SDM as the electoral officers including the collector didn’t pay heed to people’s problems.“I have been sitting in this village for four hours as people here boycotted voting since 7 am. Villagers have been requesting the collector to make some arrangements. The collector did not come. SDM was posted here but he paid no heed to their problems. So, this was the answer to SDM,” Naresh Meena said.

The seat became vacant after Harish Chandra Meena, who was elected MLA from Deoli-Uniyara seat in the 2023 Assembly elections, was elected as MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur. In 2023, Harish Chandra Meena defeated Vijay Bainsala of BJP.

Bypolls for seven seats in Rajasthan were necessitated after five MLAs were elected as MPs in Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Chorasi, Khinvsar and Deoli Uniara. Two MLAs had passed away in Ramgarh and Salumber, leaving the Assembly constituency vacant.