Rishikesh: With the first phase of assembly elections having been kicked off in Uttarakhand on Monday, a chaotic incident surfaced in Rishikesh, with Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Premchand Agarwal getting into a heated argument with a security official over not wearing a mask.
As per information, the incident occurred when Agarwal, alongside his supporters, visited the concerned booth in Rishikesh's Nabha House Mayakund assembly constituency for inspection. It is during the inspection that the security official asked the Speaker to put on the mask, resulting in Agarwal saying he would not, further asking the former to 'secure himself'.
With the further escalation of the argument between the two, the local police station was informed of the situation at hand by other security personnel, but Agarwal left the booth before the police could reach the spot.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, the Speaker on the other hand asserted that he was addressing the issue of lights not appearing on the EVM machine, which is when he has interrupted.
"If lights do not appear on the EVM machine, being the candidate of course I will take up the issue. One voter kept saying that they could not see anything. When I was speaking to the presiding officer about the issue, the security official came forward and interrupted me. I told him that he should focus on the security, and not direct the presiding officer," Agarwal said when inquired about the incident.
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