Denied ticket, BJP leader's supporters vandalise party office
Ticket for Dharampur, for which Umesh Aggarwal was a strong contender, was given by the party leadership to Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli.
Dehradun: Alleged supporters of Mahanagar BJP President Umesh Aggarwal, who was denied a ticket from Dharampur, on Tuesday vandalised the party's state office in Dehradun, tearing posters bearing pictures of party top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
Ticket for Dharampur, for which Umesh Aggarwal was a strong contender, was given recently by the party leadership to Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli.
Angry supporters of Aggarwal entered the Pradesh Party office at noon and began shouting slogans against Chamoli.
Some of them climbed on to the roof of the building and tore the huge poster in the front side, bearing pictures of Modi, party President Shah, Pradesh Party president Ajay Bhatt and BJP General Secretary in-charge of the party's affairs in Uttarakhand Shyam Jaju.
The protestors termed denial of the ticket to Aggarwal as an "injustice" to their leader.
However, party leaders sought to downplay the incident, saying it was an "instant reaction which will soon subside".
"It is an immediate reaction. It will subside soon and they will eventually work to ensure the victory of the party candidate from the seat," Pradesh BJP media in-charge Devendra Bhasin said.
Aggarwal denied that those who tore the posters were his supporters.
"My supporters cannot do this. They were Congress workers who barged into BJP state office premises and created a scene to tarnish the party's image," he said referring to people who tore the posters.
Bhasin said CCTV camera footage is being rummaged to identify the protestors.
Both BJP and Congress - the two major players in the state's largely bipolar politics - are currently grappling with the challenge of pacifying flared tempers within their parties in the wake of the ticket distribution.
Similar scenes were witnessed at the Congress Bhawan over the past two days with supporters of party leader Ayendra Sharma, who had been denied ticket from Sahaspur seat, tearing posters of Chief Minister Harish Rawat and PCC chief Kishore Upadhyay.