The Congress on Sunday alleged that its candidate from Delhi’s Rithala Assembly seat, Sushant Mishra, was attacked and injured by an Election Commission-appointed official on Saturday evening.

However, the district magistrate, who is also the district election officer, has refuted the allegation, reported The Indian Express.

The Delhi Assembly elections are scheduled for February 5 and the counting of votes will take place on February 8.

In a social media post, party leader Jairam Ramesh said: “The officer tried to stop Mishra from carrying out a foot march, for which the Delhi Police had already given permission.”

“Sushant Mishra has been actively raising cases of violations of the Model Code of Conduct by other candidates in the Delhi Assembly elections,” Ramesh added. “This is clearly a case of partisan behaviour by an officer of a constitutional body like the Election Commission.”

The Rajya Sabha MP called the alleged attack a “desperate attempt by the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop Sushant’s candidature and the growing support”.

“To maintain the integrity and sanctity of the electoral process, the Indian National Congress demands a thorough investigation into the incident and immediate corrective action against the concerned official,” said Ramesh.

The district election officer, however, stated that a flying surveillance team had arrived in Rithala upon receiving a complaint at around 5 pm, reported The Indian Express.

“At the same time, campaigning of the Indian National Congress party was also going on at Budh Vihar Phase-2,” the district election officer was quoted as saying. “The FST head requested the organisers to display the copy of permission. The campaigners of the party were unable to display a copy of the permission.”

The officer added that the team requested the organisers to disperse, which they did after discussion among themselves.

The allegations of “misbehaviour/disagreement by FST team members with campaigners are not found correct and thus denied in toto”, said the officer.