An Ambedkar statue, a nameplate, and a midnight slugfest between Congress and BJP in Rajasthan

According to the police, a statue of Ambedkar was unveiled in Bonli two years ago, and beautification work was underway. On Sunday, a nameplate with the names of Meena and a few other Congress workers was put on the statue.

When BJP workers discovered this, Pradhan Krishna Poswal and Dixit reached the spot, asking that the nameplate be removed.

Meena, too, reached the spot around midnight. “We inaugurated the statue during our government under former CM Ashok Gehlot. The municipality was doing the beautification of the circle, and a nameplate was put on the statue. It states that I helped with the construction. BJP party workers who were drunk came to the site around 9 pm on Sunday and started misbehaving with labourers. They forcefully removed the nameplate and disrupted work. When I was called, I confronted the BJP workers. Police are under the control of the state government, and they did not do anything when the BJP workers were misbehaving, so I had to deal with it,” she alleged.

In a video that is now viral on social media, Indira is purportedly seen grabbing Dixit’s collar.

She said the Ambedkar statue was built with the contribution of the town’s people, and the government was not responsible for it.

The SHO of Bonli police station, Radha Mohan Gupta, said they reached the spot when they got information of the tussle. Police have confiscated the name plate and say they will take further action as per the law.

Dixit, when contacted, denied that the BJP workers had misbehaved. “I went to the spot when I got the information regarding the tussle between Congress and BJP workers. I tried to handle the situation maturely, but MLA Indira Meena misbehaved with me. When the work of beautification is done by the BJP government, why was the Congress MLA trying to put her name plate for something already completed two years ago? We will register an FIR against her.”