Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad on Sunday night said that his convoy had been shot at in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district. He added that the attack took place when his party members were campaigning for the upcoming Bulandshahr Assembly bye-polls. It is not clear if Azad was present at the spot.

“Opposition parties have been terrified of our candidate in Bulandshahr elections and today’s rally worried them, due to which my convoy was fired at in a cowardly manner,” he tweeted. “This shows their desperation... they want the atmosphere to be toxic but we will not let this happen.”

Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said the incident has not been confirmed yet, reported News18.

Bulandshahr and six other Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will go to polls on November 3. It coincides with the Bihar state elections, which will be held in three phases starting October 28. Azad’s party – Azad Samaj Party – is for the first time foraying into electoral politics in these polls. The results of the Bihar Assembly elections as well as the bye-polls will be declared on November 10.

For the Bulandshahr bye-polls, the Azad Samaj Party has named Haji Yamin its candidate. The bye-poll was necessitated by the death Bharatiya Janata Party leader Virendra Singh Sirohi in March. Yamin’s main contenders are Usha Sirohi, the deceased MLA’s wife who is contesting on a BJP ticket, and the Congress’ Sushil Chaudhri. The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded Shamusddin Raen while the Rashtriya Lok Dal-Samajwadi Party’s joint candidate is Praveen Kumar.

In Bihar, the Azad Samaj Party will contest 30 seats under the Progressive Democratic Alliance banner led by Rajesh Ranjan of the Jan Adhikar Party.

Azad has been at the forefront of protests against the gangrape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman by four upper-caste Thakur men in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in September. He had marched to Hathras on October 4 to meet the woman’s family. A day later, the Uttar Pradesh Police had filed a first information report against him for violating Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code that prevents large gatherings.