LUCKNOW: In the third such instance in three days, a stampede-like situation cropped up at the election rally of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Azamgarh on Tuesday.
Chaos erupted and the unruly crowd went berserk as the SP chief arrived for the event at a fair ground in the town of Saraimeer. The police had to use a mild force to prevent the charged party workers from reaching the stage. Akhilesh Yadav was in Azamgarh to seek support for his party’s Lalganj candidate Daroga Prasad.
Despite repeated appeals by the SP chief, party workers jostled with each other climbing over wooden barricades which came down crumbling at the rally venue. As the ruckus escalated, the rally turned into a bedlam forcing the cops to cane charge the crowd. Visuals from the scene showed broken chairs and torn streamers littering the ground. The Lalganj seat will vote in the sixth phase of general elections - on May 25.
It was the third time that a rally led by SP chief ended in disorder. Earlier on May 19, when INDI Alliance partners Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav arrived in Phulpur to address a joint rally, the crowd climbed the stage breaking the barriers and posing a major security threat to the duo who had to rush out without addressing the crowd so as to prevent any untoward incident.
On May 20, a similar scene was witnessed in Sant Kabir Nagar when Akhilesh reached to address a poll rally in support of his party candidate.