As the Lok Sabha elections are underway, reports have now come in of bogus voting facilitated by election officers from Maharashtra’s Beed.
The incident has come to light after it was reportedly captured by the media office of the state’s Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction. The party’s leaders visited the poll booth and questioned the election officials, as per the video below.
Breaking 🚨
Beed Constituency Maharashtra election officers were themselves allowing bogus voting. This was caught on camera by NCP Sharad Pawar Group’s leader and when he questioned these officers they were speechless.
How is this a free and fair election when the entire… pic.twitter.com/HMhrnD7cwr
— Priyamwada (@PriaINC) May 17, 2024
On May 13, 96 constituencies went to vote across the country in the fourth phase of the country’s Lok Sabha elections. Eleven constituencies went to vote from Maharashtra.
Sabrang India had earlier covered how about four states, including Maharashtra, had reportedly seen reported election related violations by the BJP in this voting phase alone. Incidents were earlier reported from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Jharkhand.
Maharashtra’s Beed had recorded about 58% of voting in the phase. This was a dip from the 66% witnessed in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
The BJP held the seat and is now contesting with its candidate Pankaja Munde against NCP (SP)’s Bajrang Sonawane for the seat at Beed.
Sonawane has also claimed that booth capturing took place in several parts of the constituency, he alleged that voting has taken place under the domination of ‘one community’. He has written to the chief election commissioner and demanded that polling should take place again on camera, according to the Times of India.
Beed on ground grapples with several dominating factions, including the Maratha community which has been demanding for OBC reservations. Pankaja Munde, contesting from the BJP which is in alliance with the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, belongs to the Munde clan which has traditionally held power in the constituency. The family belongs to the OBC community, which the BJP wishes to consolidate as a vote in Maharashtra and across the country. Prior to her, her late father had been senior BJP leader.
According to a report in the Indian Express, Pune had also seen allegations of bogus voting earlier this week. Th allegation was also raised by Congress party’s city chief from Pune, Arvine Shinde, that Pune had also witnessed bogus voting. Shinde reached the poll booth to find out that somebody had already voted in his name. Pune has also seen a significant dip in voting, as compared to earlier polls, and tallied at a total 51 % on May 13, ranking lowest among all of the state’s constituencies that went to poll in the fourth phase. Earlier this week, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule had also raised allegations of tampering with election at the Baramati constituency and had written to the election commission. She had claimed that a security camera was switched on and off for over 45 minutes.
बारामती लोकसभा मतदारसंघाचे मतदान पार पडल्यानंतर त्या इव्हिएम ज्या गोडावूनमध्ये ठेवल्या आहेत, तेथील सीसीटिव्ही आज सकाळी ४५ मिनिटे बंद पडले होते. इव्हिएमसारखी अतिशय महत्वाची गोष्ट जेथे ठेवलेली आहे, तेथील सीसीटिव्ही बंद पडणे ही बाब संशयास्पद आहे. तसेच हा खुप मोठा हलगर्जीपणा देखील… pic.twitter.com/8HmqR2icHn
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) May 13, 2024
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