Business lawyer Raj Grewal won the federal Liberal nomination for the riding of Brampton East Sunday night after a vote that party officials say was marred by a brawl.

An official of the local Liberal riding association said at least 750 people were denied participation in the nomination meeting, in which 2,910 voted.

“The complaints that we were hearing from a lot of our members was that their names were not on the (voters) list today, although they got invitations to come to the nomination meeting,” said the association’s executive vice-president, Amarinder Singh. “They waited the whole hour to get to the polling station, but then, they were turned away.”

Singh said those who were denied their votes gathered outside, where eventually a brawl erupted. Peel police confirmed officers were sent to the event at the International Centre in Mississauga, but would say only that they were there for “crowd control.”

(Brett Thalmann, director of operations for the Liberal Party of Canada Ontario, later told the Star that only 245 people were turned away; Thalmann also denied there was a brawl.)

Kevin Singh, a Liberal supporter who said he was turned way along with his family, said there are as many as 1,000 people who were denied their votes.

Singh said a lot of those denied votes were supporters of the losing candidate, Parminder Singh, a doctor and sports commentator, who he said intended to challenge Grewal’s victory. It was not immediately clear as of Sunday night what margin Grewal won by.

Singh said the association was not involved in organizing the nomination meeting, which he said was handled by the Liberal Party of Canada itself. The candidates did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday night.

Correction – September 22, 2014: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Halton police were called to the meeting. As well, the article mistakenly referred to Brampton’s International Centre. In fact, the event took place at the International Centre in Mississauga.

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