In Gujarat’s Mahisagar district, two people who are associated with the BJP were recently arrested on May 8 after allegations of engaging in fake voting arose. The incident took place during the third phase of voting in India’s 18th Lok Sabha elections at the Dahod Lok Sabha constituency on May 7th. It gained a great deal of attention, including from the authorities, after the video was broadcast live by the two arrested on social media and went viral.
The suspect, identified as Vijay Bhabhor streamed the incident live on his Facebook account. The video shot depicts Bhabhor entering a polling booth in Prathampur and tampering with the electronic voting machine, despite repeated warnings from election officials. As per reports from local media, Bhabor is the son of a former Mahisagar Taluka panchayat leader Ramesh Bhabor. Bhabor was previously seen in the video saying, “EVM toh apne baap ki hai.” (EVM is my father’s property) After the video went viral, he had reportedly deleted it. In available recording of the video, Vijay Bhabor can be seen tampering with the voting equipment freely inside the polling booth. He is also heard using abusive words, and saying ‘I am pressing the button for you.” He has also reportedly said that he can take the EVM home if he wants. He was also reportedly seen encouraging people to vote for BJP’s candidate, sitting MP Jaswant Singh Bhabore, who is a BJP MP from Dahod for the past two terms and has also formerly been a Minister of State for Tribal Affairs in Gujarat.
The video depicting the son of a BJP leader entering the polling booth and engaging in fraudulent voting in Mahisagar, Gujarat, has gone viral.
Reality of BJP! pic.twitter.com/EQtsqCGNLw
— Gujarat Pradesh Congress Sevadal (@SevadalGJ) May 8, 2024
The opposition Congress party has demanded for strong measures in response, claiming that the accused visited around 25 other such polling stations within the Gothib taluka panchayat in Santrampur. The party has filed two separate complaints to the police in the case.
The two accused, Vijay Bhabore and Magan Damore have reportedly been arrested as of now after a complaint was filed against them by IP Pathan, an executive magistrate, as per a report in TOI. As per the report, four election officials on duty were also served show cause notice for not having reported the video to the election officials in their district. The police have also confirmed, as per the IE report, that both arrested are members of the BJP.
This news comes shortly as a stream of BJP leaders, party workers, and even government officials have been reported to have threatened voters into voting for the BJP from Assam to UP, and now to Gujarat. Similar reports have arisen from Mathur and Sambhal in UP of Muslims being denied the right to vote.
As we await the voters’ mandate for the 2024 general assembly elections, these incidents continue to pile up at an alarming pace.
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