Madhya Pradesh MLA shouts at cop for turning off Shivraj Chouhan’s mic: ‘You’ll be thrown to a place from where you won’t return’
Madhya Pradesh MLA shouts at cop for turning off Shivraj Chouhan’s mic: ‘You’ll be thrown to a place from where you won’t return’
A police officer in Madhya Pradesh faced the wrath of a BJP MLA for turning off former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s microphone in line with the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct, under which election campaigns should wrap up by 10 pm.
The incident took place on Thursday night in the Bhojpur Assembly segment of the Vidisha parliamentary constituency, from where the BJP has fielded Chouhan as its Lok Sabha candidate.
While Chouhan was addressing the poll rally, police officer Mahendra Singh Thakur, the in-charge of Mandideep police station, reportedly turned off the mic. In a video of the incident, Chouhan can be heard saying, “Why did you turn the mic off? It’s not 10 pm yet, switch it on again. Just remove him (the officer) from here.”
The video also showed former state minister and local BJP MLA Surendra Patwa shouting at the officer. “Come here, you will be thrown to such a place that it wouldn’t be possible to return. He (the officer) is creating a lot of trouble,” Patwa was heard saying, before local BJP leaders and workers stopped him. Later, the mic was turned on again.
When reached for comment, Patwa told The Indian Express, “The mic was switched off during Shivraj ji’s speech. I just asked them to turn it back on. There were seven minutes left for the speech to end. I was shouting at those in charge of the sound system. I would never speak like that to a policeman.”
After the video went viral, the Congress hit out at the BJP. “Look at BJP’s arrogance. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is raising questions over the implementation of the election code of conduct and Surendra Patwa misbehaving and threatening the police station in-charge, Mahendra Singh Thakur. Extremely indecent and condemnable act,” the Madhya Pradesh Congress said in a post on its X handle.
Vidisha votes in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections, on May 7.
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