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Journalism of Courage
An FIR was registered on Thursday against a man for allegedly asking people to vote for ‘the bicycle’ from a mosque loudspeaker in Lubuxur village, Meerut. The ‘bicycle’ is the official election symbol of the Samajwadi Party. The Meerut area went to polls Thursday, the first day of voting for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Lubuxur is a part of the Kithore assembly segment in Meerut where SP’s Shahid Manzoor is pitted against BJP’s sitting MLA Satyaveer Tyagi, and Babita Gurjar and Kushalpal Mavi from the Congress and the BSP respectively.
The announcement was made around 9 am on Thursday and then repeated for nearly three to four minutes, which caught the attention of the opponent parties, who informed the police. The accused and his unidentified accomplices fled from the mosque before the police could arrest them for violating the election Model Code of Conduct.
“An FIR has been registered against the man, who at present is absconding. We have deployed adequate police force in the village to ensure that the mischief (of announcement) does not hinder the peaceful poll process,” Neeraj Malik, in-charge of Bhawanpur police station, told The Indian Express over the phone.
