Supporters of former Madhya Pradesh home minister and senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra took to the streets on Friday and Saturday, furious over the party’s decision to hand the Datia assembly bypoll ticket to Ashutosh Tiwari instead of Mishra, who had contested and lost the seat back in 2023.
Mishra had been unseated by Congress leader Rajendra Bharti, who beat him by more than 7,500 votes in the 2023 assembly elections. But Bharti’s political fortunes took a sharp turn this April, when a Delhi court sentenced him to three years in prison in a cheating case, triggering his disqualification as an MLA and forcing the bypoll. He was later released on bail.
On being denied a ticket for the upcoming assembly bypoll by the party, BJP leader Narottam Mishra said, “… This is the party’s decision. I urge all party workers, especially after seeing videos on social media of workers pouring petrol or kerosene, not to engage in such actions… Within the party forum, views are expressed in an appropriate manner. They are not conveyed in this fashion.”
Anger boils over after Mishra denied ticket
The party’s choice of Tiwari came as a bitter blow for Mishra, who had reportedly been banking on getting the nomination himself and had already picked up a nomination form, according to reports.
What followed was chaos. Over 3,000 protesters blocked National Highway 44 for close to 12 hours, injuring the Datia superintendent of police and several other officers, before security forces finally cleared the road and detained a number of demonstrators, officials told the agency.
One supporter made the group’s stance clear, saying they had no intention of calling off the protest unless “Narottam Dada” was given the ticket, adding that they were even willing to walk away from the BJP over the issue.
Datia collector Swapnil Wankhede said the enraged crowd kept the highway shut for nearly 11 to 12 hours despite repeated appeals to clear the road. When those requests fell on deaf ears and protesters began pelting stones, police were forced to fire tear gas shells to break up the crowd, he said. He added that the Datia SP, along with other senior officers and personnel, sustained injuries during the unrest, and that both police vehicles and private vehicles were damaged in the melee.
Datia SP Mayur Khandelwal said the situation spiralled well beyond a routine demonstration, with over 3,000 protesters disrupting law and order across Datia town, attempting to force market shutdowns, and maintaining the road blockade for nearly 12 hours straight. More than six police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting, he said.
“We tried to pacify them, citing the enforcement of the model code of conduct in the town. However, after they refused to back down and pelted stones, cops fired teargas shells to control the situation,” Khandelwal said.
He confirmed that some protesters had been arrested and warned that strict action would follow if the violence was repeated.
The Datia bypoll
The Election Commission recently released the schedule for bypolls across three assembly constituencies nationwide, with Datia among them alongside seats in Bihar and Gujarat.
The BJP’s announcement of Ashutosh Tiwari as its Datia candidate on Friday is what set off the unrest among Mishra’s loyalists. Polling for the seat will take place on 30 July, with vote counting scheduled for 3 August.
Bureau Report
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