By ANI

CHHATARPUE (Madhya Pradesh): Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Tikamgarh parliamentary constituency RR Bansal has been caught on camera asking party workers to go to villages and collect voting slips from those who will not exercise their franchise and then cast votes on their behalf in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

"It is the duty of our party workers that they go to the villages and collect the voting slips from those who are not going to vote and then cast votes on their voting slips (Ye hamare karyakartaon ka kartavya banta hai ki gaon mein jaayein, jo log vote nahi daal rahe hain, unse parchi le aaye aur parchi laa karke vote daalo)," Bansal told a small gathering of SP volunteers here on Tuesday.

On February 25, the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) decided to enter into alliance and contest the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. As part of the seat-sharing deal, SP will contest on three seats (Balaghat, Tikamgarh and Khajuraho) while the BSP will field its candidates in rest of the constituencies.

Incidentally, BSP is an alliance partner in the Congress-led Madhya Pradesh government with its two MLAs extending their support to the state leadership.

All 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will go to polls on April 29, May 6 and 12. The votes will be counted on May 23.