High drama unfolded in Bihar's Bankipur on the eve of the assembly bypolls, with Jan Suraaj Party candidate Prashant Kishor alleging that several of his party workers were detained by the police.
Kishor, accompanied by a large group of supporters, reached the Jakkanpur police station and confronted Station House Officer (SHO) Rituraj Kumar Singh over the alleged detentions.
He claimed that the police had held the party workers for several hours before shifting them to an undisclosed location, while failing to provide any information about their whereabouts.
"I have been camping here for the past few hours, and the police is unable to divulge the whereabouts of more than 16 of my supporters who have been rounded up," Kishor alleged.
He also issued a warning to the police, saying, "If any harm comes to them (the party workers allegedly detained), Rituraj Kumar Singh, the SHO of Jakkanpur police station, will certainly lose his job. He should be well aware of that."
Kishor further accused the BJP of orchestrating the alleged detentions to influence the bypoll.
"It (the BJP) knows it is going to lose the bypoll. The police can keep a person in custody for 24 hours without producing him before a magistrate. So a plan has been devised to keep some of my supporters in custody till the time voting is over," he claimed.
Meanwhile, polling for the Bankipur Assembly by-election began at 7 am on Thursday under tight security arrangements. The counting of votes is scheduled for August 3.
The BJP has fielded its youth wing leader, Neeraj Kumar Sinha, while Kishor's entry into the fray has turned the contest into one of the most closely watched bypoll battles in Bihar. Bankipur has been a BJP bastion since 1995, when the constituency was known as Patna West.
According to Election Commission data, all 422 polling stations in the constituency are located in urban areas.
