A new picture of Independent MLA candidate from Rajasthan’s Tonk district Naresh Meena surfaced on Friday. Meena on Thursday was arrested after he slapped a sub-divisional magistrate during polling in full view of camera crews. Meena, a Congress rebel contesting as an Independent, caught SDM Malpura, Amit Chaudhary, by his collar and slapped him, an official said.
Chaudhary was trying to get more people to vote in the bypolls held on Wednesday. Locals had boycotted polling over a demand to include Samravta village in Uniara sub-division instead of in Deoli. Meena was supporting the villagers. The incident led to tension in the area with vehicles being torched, police being pelted with stones and 60 people arrested.
Arrested after violence
About 60 two-wheelers and 18 four-wheelers were torched in the violence that erupted outside the polling booth. Police personnel tried to remove Meena and his supporters who sat on a dharna in Samravta village in the Deoli-Uniara assembly constituency.
The Rajasthan Administrative Services (RAS) Association called for a pen-down strike and government work was affected for some time in the morning. Four cases were registered against Meena, including for disrupting public work and damaging public property.
Meena was associated with the Congress for long, but had rebelled against the party on several occasions on being denied poll tickets. This time also, he rebelled against the Congress and entered the bypoll fray from Deoli-Uniara.
In the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly polls, Meena wanted to contest the Chhabra Chhipabaraud seat in Baran, but the Congress did not field him. He entered the poll fray as an Independent. However, he lost the contest by about 44,000 votes and was expelled from the party.
