EC team visits Mainpuri; checks records, EVMs

A four-member Election Commission team today visited several villages and polling stations under Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency to verify t...

A four-member Election Commission team today visited several villages and polling stations under Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency to verify the complaints of large-scale rigging and booth capturing during the October 13 byelections and checked various records including the EVMs stored in government strong room.

The team, comprising secretaries in the Election Commission, Tapas Kumar and K.F. Wilfred, and under secretaries, Y. Standhope and N.N. Butolia, visited various polling stations and villages to verify the complaints lodged by the Opposition parties, official sources said. They also went to the strong room where the EVMs have been kept under heavy police protection.

The team checked the EVMs and also scrutinised the records to verify the complaints by the BSP, BJP and Congress candidates that some SP activists had indulged in booth capturing resulting in over 80 per cent polling, sources said.

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The Opposition had alleged that SP activists’ terror kept the voters away from polling stations where the ruling party’s supporters put in their signatures and thumb impression to cast fake votes. They had also provided a list of such polling centres.

Opposition sources said the EC team has assured them that their complaints would be scrutnised throughly. When contacted, EC secretary, Tapas Kumar, refused to divulge the findings of the team so far but said that team would submit its report to the Commission soon.