Passengers waiting for their trains at Etawah railway station in Uttar Pradesh were shocked when, instead of announcement regarding the running status of the trains and their platform numbers, appeal to support Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, where a bypoll was slated for December 5, was made from the public address system.
According to reports, slogans like 'Dimple Yadav Zindabad' and 'make Dimple Bhabhi victorious' were raised using the railway enquiry announcement system at Etawah railway station on the Kanpur-Delhi section of the Northern Railway on Saturday night.
Reports said that a few passengers, who heard the slogans, approached the railway officials at the station and registered protest against using the railway enquiry for the election campaign and demanded action against those responsible for it.
Police sources in Etawah said that the matter had been brought to the notice of the GRP, which was investigating the claims.
Sources quoting a railway official in Etawah said that some 'miscreants' forcibly entered the announcement room at the station on Saturday night around 11 PM and ran a pre-recorded message containing slogans in support of Dimple Yadav from the system.
Another report said that a few members of the railway union, who were on their way to Prayagraj to attend a meeting, made their way into the announcement room and used it for slogan shouting in favour of the SP nominee.
BJP nominee from Mainpuri Raghuraj Singh Shakya decried the incident and said that he would lodge a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) in this regard. "It shows that the SP has conceded defeat....it proves their (SP supporters) frustration," he said. SP leaders said that they had no knowledge about the incident.
The bypoll to the seat was necessitated after SP founder and sitting MP Mulayam Singh Yadav's death.