By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 23, Jan: In respect of the polling held on Thursday for the municipal elections in Uttarakhand, particularly in Dehradun and Haridwar, questions have been raised by political parties including the BJP about voters names missing as well as allegations have been levelled regarding fake voting. More than 130 complaints have been received on Thursday itself in the Control Room set up in the BJP Dehradun Mahanagar office in this respect. BJP has also complained about 250 fake votes in Almora. The party is also upset with slow voting.
This correspondent visited the BJP Control Room at BJP’s Mahanagar office here and spoke to several BJP leaders in this regard including with BJP State Treasurer Puneet Mittal, who is also the coordinator for the Election Commission on behalf of BJP for the civic elections.
Mittal alleged that his team has been monitoring the polling stations across the state since morning. Calls have been coming on a regular basis to the BJP call centre since morning, and so far, more than 130 complaints have already been received. These complaints include cases of names not being in the voters list at many places. Additionally, the slow pace of voting was a matter of great concern.
At the same time, senior advocate and member of BJP’s Election Commission Coordinator Committee, Rajeev Sharma stated that people from all over the state are contacting them, and the legal team of the BJP is resolving these issues on the spot. In Almora, complaints were received about voting by individuals from outside the state, allegedly using fake voter cards. A complaint has been made to the Election Commission against such individuals. Rajeev Sharma claimed that there are about 250 such voters who are residents of UP but have been registered as voters from Uttarakhand. Complaints have been made against these individuals, and a request has been made to the Election Commission to stop their voting. Furthermore, he alleged that at many places, voter IDs are not being checked before voting. He also cited an example in this case, He stated that at the Tara Devi Inter College located in Deepnagar in Dehradun, action was taken to correct and make the process transparent when the BJP worker registered a complaint to the Returning Officer concerned.
