The incident took place at Lakhimpur Kheri, around 130 km from Lucknow
A Samajwadi Party worker is manhandled and her sari is yanked by two men from a rival party in a disturbing video that emerged on Thursday as nominations were filed for local polls in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday.
The woman was a proposer for a Samajwadi Party candidate in block panchayat polls and was trying to enter a nomination centre when she was attacked by rival party men. They also snatched the candidate's nomination papers to stop her from filing them in time; the police said the men were trying to ensure their candidate would be elected unopposed.
Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the attackers were BJP workers and, sharing the video in a tweet, called them "power hungry goons of Yogi Adityanath (Chief Minister)".
The incident took place at Lakhimpur Kheri, around 130 km from Lucknow.
Clashes were reported from more than a dozen places as nominations were filled for voting on Saturday for 825 block pramukhs or local panchayat heads.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also posted a video of the violence along with a comment targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath.
"PM and CM, please congratulate your workers in UP who resorted to bombs, stones and bullets, who snatched nomination papers, beat up journalists and misbehaved with women. Law and order is blindfolded and democracy is being disrobed," Priyanka Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, referencing the Mahabharata.
UP police officer Prashant Kumar said security arrangements had been made for the filing of nominations but violence was reported from 14 areas.
"We have reports of clashes between groups, papers being snatched... Tough action will be taken against those involved," said the officer.
Ahead of the assembly election in Uttar Pradesh next year, the stakes are high even in local polls, which have seen intense campaigning and clashes.
After the recent Zila Panchayat presidents' elections, the panchayat block chief polls will be the last rural election before the state votes for a new government.
The BJP scored big in the Zila Panchayat polls, winning 67 of 75 seats. The Samajwadi Party won only five seats. The Rashtriya Lok Dal, Jansatta Dal and an independent candidate won a seat each. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not fight the polls.
In the same election in 2016, the Samajwadi Party had won 60 seats.