Maha Panchayat convened in UP's Meerut over councillors' brawl

Meerut (UP), Jan 1 (IANS) A brawl at the Meerut Nagar Nigam board meeting has snowballed into a major controversy with the INDIA bloc parties, including the Rashtriya Lok Dal, Samajwadi Party, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party demanding a high-level inquiry into the incident.

The Azad Samaj Party chief Chandra Shekhar has announced a Maha Panchayat that will be held in Meerut on January 10 on the issue.

The announcement by Azad came a day after councillors from various political parties allegedly came to blows after a heated exchange at the civic body meeting on Saturday.

Samajwadi Party MLA Atul Pradhan and Rashtriya Lok Dal national general secretary and former MLA Rajendra Sharma, who were present at the press conference by Azad, also sought security for councillors who were attacked and called for lodging of a case against the BJP leaders, including Minister Somendra Tomar and MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj.

Meerut’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohit Singh Sajwan said a case has been registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of councillor Ashish Choudhary (Bahujan Samaj Party).

He said the incident occurred inside the Nagar Nigam house and a committee formed by the municipal commissioner is also investigating it.

“Findings of the committee and CCTV footage of the incident would also be included in the investigation,” the SSP said. He added that a complaint has also been received from the BJP but no case registered yet.

Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai met BSP councillor Ashish Chaudhary and SP councillor Kirti Ghopla, who were allegedly attacked on Saturday night and assured them of his party’s support.

For its part, the BJP has accused the BSP councillors of misbehaving with the party’s women councillors which led to the brawl in the House. The BJP has demanded action against them.

Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Rajendra Sharma said the BJP leaders were now making false accusations to save face.

A video of the brawl had gone viral on social media.