Supporters of BJP leader Narottam Mishra shut down NH-44 over a bypoll ticket denial, but it’s ordinary commuters and shopkeepers who bore the brunt of the fallout
A dispute over who gets to contest a single assembly seat spiralled into a 12-hour highway shutdown in Datia this week, leaving commuters stranded, shops forced closed, and several police personnel injured. The unrest began after the BJP picked Ashutosh Tiwari over veteran leader Narottam Mishra as its candidate for the upcoming Datia bypoll, a decision Mishra’s supporters were unwilling to accept quietly.
What triggered the protest?
The Datia seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti was disqualified this April following a three-year prison sentence in a cheating case, though he was later granted bail. Mishra, who had contested and lost the seat in 2023 by more than 7,500 votes, was widely expected to get a second shot at it. Instead, the party handed the ticket to Tiwari, a decision Mishra’s supporters called a betrayal.
When a candidature fight becomes a public crisis
What started as internal party disappointment quickly turned into a law-and-order problem for people who had nothing to do with the ticket decision. More than 3,000 protesters blocked NH-44 for close to 12 hours, disrupting traffic on a national highway used by ordinary travellers, transporters, and daily commuters alike. Datia SP Mayur Khandelwal said the protesters also attempted to force shops shut across the town, extending the disruption well beyond the highway itself.
When police tried to clear the road, the situation escalated further. District collector Swapnil Wankhede said protesters allegedly pelted stones despite repeated requests to clear the road, injuring the Datia superintendent of police and several other officers, before teargas was used to disperse the crowd. Vehicles, including police vehicles, were damaged in the process.
A seat, a candidate, and a lot of collateral damage
This is, at its core, a dispute over one candidacy in a single assembly bypoll. Yet the fallout was borne almost entirely by people outside that dispute: commuters stuck on a blocked national highway for half a day, shopkeepers whose businesses were forced to shut, and police personnel who ended up injured trying to manage a crowd venting frustration over an internal party decision. One protester said the demonstration would only end if Mishra was given the ticket, adding that supporters were even willing to quit the party over the issue.
Several BJP office-bearers, including the district unit president, did resign in protest following the ticket announcement, according to PTI.
Some protesters have been detained, and authorities have warned of strict action if the violence repeats. Polling for the Datia seat, along with two other bypolls in Bihar and Gujarat, is scheduled for July 30, with results due August 3.
As election season inevitably brings more ticket disputes and candidate selections across the country, incidents like this raise a pressing question: should political disagreements over who gets to contest a seat be allowed to hold entire towns and highways hostage, and at what point does a party’s internal conflict stop being an internal matter altogether?
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