Another candidate in the Tower Hamlets election campaign has been involved in a violent incident while out canvassing on the doorstep.
Maium Talukdar was being interviewed by police last night following the incident around 7pm at a block of flats in Millwall, in the Canary Wharf ward.
Other ward candidates were at an election ward hustings in Pepper Street at the time while Maium was involved in a confrontation less than half-a-mile away outside a block of flats in Mastmaker Road.
It follows an attack earlier this month when fellow Aspire party member Abdullah Al Mamun was hit with a metal pole while canvassing in Reardon Street in Wapping on April 6.
The party is at the heart of this latest incident following a string of election mishaps which began when its candidate for mayor was involved in a tussle with a rival while campaigning in Wapping last month, which involved a complaint to police.
“This is another assault on democracy,” party spokesman and candidate Mahbub Alam told the East London Advertiser.
“It’s a shocking pattern emerging leading up to the election, while another candidate was simply trying to talk to the residents. Police attended the scene and have dealt with the matter.”
Police have confirmed they were called to Mastmaker Road at around 6.10pm where a man was pushed into bushes outside the entrance. No charges have been made and the matter was being dealt with on a community basis, Scotland Yard reported.
Maium himself later told the Advertiser: “I was assaulted. In fact, the security guard or concierge showed the incident video to the police and identified the man and he was dealt formally with by the police.”
Maium was canvassing with fellow party ward candidate Helen Begum while the hustings hosted by the ‘1 Love Community’ social enterprise were about to start, chaired by Gary Hutton of the ‘Product of a Postcode’ alternative education charity.
Word of the incident with Maium came through during the meeting where questions were voters were putting questions to Tory candidates Tom Randall and Andrew Wood, Lib Dem’s Gareth Shelton, Greens’ Andrew Grey and independent Natasha Bolter.
Questions included police priorities and street crime, the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood Plan going to a public hearing next month, the controversial Thames crossing from Canary Wharf to Rotherhithe, and flats being left empty while the East End was facing a homeless crisis.
In the audience was 23-year-old Reece Kempley in a wheelchair, along with his mum Rachel who has been campaigning to get suitable Tower Hamlets council family housing, following her son’s accident on holiday in Corfu last summer which left him with a spine injury.
Rachel, who had been invited to the hustings with Reece by Natasha Bolter who came across his plight while out canvassing, pressed the candidates for action once the election on May 3 was over.
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