Lucknow: Tension prevailed at Gajraula in Amroha district on Thursday after ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members clashed over allegations of booth capturing during the first phase of Uttar Pradesh’s Municipal Corporation elections that began at 7 am on Thursday amid tight security arrangements. At least 10 people from both sides were arrested and dozens injured in clashes, police officials said.
Some BSP members, led by former MLA Harpal Singh, whose wife is a mayor candidate, alleged that BJP members were booth capturing and also claimed that Muslim voters were not being allowed inside certain booths. While BJP supporters alleged that ‘Burqa-clad women’ were indulging in fake voting in Amroha. However, this charge was denied by the district magistrate.
“Over a dozen people were injured in clashes between BJP and BSP supporters in Gajraula and over a dozen from both sides were arrested,” a police officer told NewsClick over the phone.
Similar reports poured in from the Lucknow Municipal Corporation Zone-2 area and Prayagraj, where supporters of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BJP clashed over issues relating to voting.
Some SP supporters alleged bias, saying that strict action was being taken only against the Opposition inside the polling booths and alleged that Muslim voters, especially burqa-clad women, were not allowed to cast their votes. They also alleged that multiple scrutiny by the district administration had forced women to stay at home.
Abdul Wahid, SP district president in Saharanpur, alleged that central security forces were harassing Muslim voters in the name of ID checks (Aadhar card) with the “aim to reduce the polling percentage”.
In a letter written to party president Akhilesh Yadav, Wahid said, “In Muslim and dalit majority areas, voters are being intimidated and prevented from going to booths from exercising their rights in the name of checking Aadhaar cards.”
“Paramilitary forces in Muslim majority areas in Saharanpur are sending back Muslim and dalit voters from polling booths. The voters had documents, including voter ID and slip, but the police officers were insisting they bring their Aadhaar card,” Wahid told NewsClick.
The SP leader alleged that at polling booths — JBM Inter College and JB Jain Inter College, Islamia Inter College, Islamia Girls College – security forces were preventing Muslim voters from exercising their franchise.
Imran Masood, a BSP leader and former MLA from Muzzafarabad seat in Saharanpur district, told NewsClick, “There is no need of conducting elections if Muslims are not allowed to cast their votes. People have been queuing up since 6 in the morning carrying three ID proofs, yet are not being allowed to exercise franchise. Everyone’s nomination should have been rejected and BJP should have been declared unopposed.”
Masood also shared multiple videos (seen by NewsClick but not independently verified) from his official Twitter account showing never-ending queues outside the booths waiting for their turn to cast their vote.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), polls in 37 districts are underway in the first phase of the polls on Thursday to elect 7,593 representatives, including 10 mayors and 820 corporators.
A total of 44,232 candidates are in the fray in the first phase and more than 2.40 crore people are eligible to vote. Out of this, 1.12 crore voters are women and 1.27 crore are male voters. Polls are being held for 103 posts of nagarpalika parishad chairperson and 2,740 nagarpalika parishad members.
Polling for the second-phase is scheduled to take place on May 11 and the counting will take place on May 13.
The ruling BJP won an unprecedented 14 out of 16 mayoral seats in the urban local bodies elections in 2017. BSP won two seats, Meerut and Aligarh, while SP and Congress could not open their accounts.
The saffron party had won 11 of the 13 mayoral seats in 2012.
MUSLIM NAMES ‘MISSING’ FROM VOTER’s LIST
Despite going through the cumbersome process of filling the mandatory M-Forms and carrying voter IDs, a large number of Muslim voters complained that they had to return dejected from the polling booths as their names were missing from the voters’ lists.
NewsClick spoke to more than a dozen Muslim voters, including professors, journalists and doctors, who found their name missing despite having voted in the last Assembly polls, 2019 Lok Sabha polls and even previous local body polls.
Asad Rizvi, a journalist in Lucknow, said he did not find his name in the electoral list, saying he and his wife had been casting their votes for a long time.
“Grave errors like omission of names from voter lists is a violation of basic fundamental rights. Interestingly, both names were there on the voters’ list during the 2022 Assembly election, 2019 Lok Sabha election and we even exercised our franchise in the previous urban body polls,” Rizvi told NewsClick.
Danish, another resident of Lucknow’s Khurram Nagar told NewsClick: “We are four members in the family and this has never happened that everyone’s name is missing from the voter list. I, along with my father, went to the local booth but returned after not finding our names in the voter list. Even our neighbours, who have been voting for many years, were disappointed not seeing their names in the list.”
The situation in neighbouring Unnao and Kanpur was not any better; nor in Western Uttar Pradesh where Muslims are sizable in number. These are the areas from where the first voices were heard about Muslim names ‘missing’ from electoral rolls.
Several Muslim voters in Gorakhpur also had to return home without casting their votes.
“Names of entire family members are neither on the voters’ list nor on the deleted list. We had to return from the polling booth after not finding our names,” Rizwan, a voter in the Gorakhnath area, told NewsClick.
This reporter and his family members also had to return from a polling booth in Gomti Nagar after finding their names missing from the voter list.
Courtesy: Newsclick