Following the circulation of a video allegedly showing a polling agent in Southern Assam’s Karimganj district voting five times on an EVM for the BJP candidate, the District Election Officer (DEO) has issued a show cause notice to polling officials, a senior official said.
The poll was held on April 26, Friday, during the second phase of general elections.
In the video, it was seen that a polling agent named Abdul Sahid cast a vote in favour of the BJP five times, with each time maintaining the count and informing the other people in the room. The video was self-filmed and later shared on social media.
Taking note, Karimganj DEO has taken disciplinary action against the Presiding Officer, and “lawful action will also be taken against the polling agent who violated the instruction of not carrying the mobile phone inside the polling station,” as per officials.
A statement issued by the office of the DEO said the video was of a “mock poll” conducted before the official voting commenced and not of the actual poll. The incident is from Polling Station No 11, 240 NO. Nayadhar L.P. School (Right) of 125 Patharkandi LAC, Karimganj HPC-7.
“On receiving this complaint, the matter was brought during scrutiny in the presence of the General Observer and Candidates/Election agent on 11 Am 27th April. The Polling Team was called and as per the statement of Presiding Officer Shri, Nazrul Hague Tapadar, Librarian (Taltala High School), the said video was taken during a mock poll and later on CRC (Close Result Clear) was done before the start of the Actual Poll” the press release stated.
As per procedure, Polling Agents are allowed to cast a few votes in favour of the candidate during the Mock Poll. “Statements of other polling agents are underway and polling officials have been served Show-cause notice in this regard,” reads the press release.
Karimganj Lok Sabha seat went for the poll on the second phase of election i.e. 26th April. It recorded 80.5% casting, as per final ECI data.
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