MP Congress Demands FIR Against Gwalior Collector and SP for Allowing BJP’s 3-day Membership Drive Amid Pandemic

Bhopal: Referring to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s recently concluded three days mega membership drive in Gwalior, the Madhya Pradesh Congress on Tuesday, August 25, demanded an FIR against Gwalior district collector and Superintendent of Police at four different police stations of the city.

State Congress Spokesperson Mishra, Gwalior Congress Chief Devendra Sharma along with local leaders and lawyers visited the Padar Police Station and handed over four separate complaints to Gwalior additional SP, Satyendra Singh, seeking FIR against district collector and SP, Gwalior.

In a 45-page complaint, the party alleged that both the top officials not only wilfully disobeyed the Unlock-3 guidelines of Union Home Ministry but violated the state government’s August 4 directive issued with the aim to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and categorically banned all kinds of gathering including political ones till August 31. They have also violated Section 144 of the IPC imposed across the state on Sundays, the letter said.

“Gwalior collector and SP grossly violated Union as well as State Home Ministry’s lockdown norms just to benefit the BJP. They acted like BJP workers instead of an administrator,” said Gwalior-Chambal Congress media in charge and state spokesperson KK Mishra, adding that there was a lockdown on Sunday (August 23) across the state as per the state Home Ministry’s order but since the BJP was running a mega membership drive in Gwalior there was no lockdown.

The mega membership drive was held from August 22 to 24 in view of Scindia’s first visit to Gwalior after joining the BJP in March this year and also with an eye on the upcoming by-poll for 27 seats.

Also read: MP: Ahead of By-poll, 2 Sitting Congress MLAs Join BJP, Minister Claims More to Follow

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Minister and MP from Morena parliamentary seat Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP State Chief VD Sharma and nearly half dozen Ministers of State Cabinet had participated in the three-day long event.

According to the BJP’s official schedule of the event, in the three-day membership drive, Scindia supporters of Gwalior, Bhind and Morena districts had joined the BJP during the drive. Also, nearly 35,000 workers have switched over to the BJP, as claimed by the party.

Notably, the Gwalior is the third city of the state after Indore and Bhopal where COVID-19 cases are alarmingly rising. The city has reported nearly 4,000 cases and its adjacent district Morena has reported nearly 2,000 cases in the last 45 days.

“Hence, we demand FIR against Collector and SP under section 51 and 55 of the Disaster Management Act-2005, section 188 of the IPC and other relevant sections for violating the lockdown norms,” claimed Mishra.

He also claimed that if the police failed to register the FIR, the party will approach the High Court for justice. The Congress has also claimed that the party will file a complaint against both the officials to the Election Commission of India to ensure free and fair election in the forthcoming by-polls.