New Delhi: At least two incidents have come to light in the north-eastern states that appear to show election officials allegedly favouring the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while conducting home voting for senior citizens.
The first incident was flagged by H. Suresh Sharma, the election agent of A. Bimol Akoijam, the opposition Congress candidate in the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat.
In a written complaint to the district election officer, Sharma stated that there was “undue influence exerted by the concerned booth level officer (BLO) of Chingmeirong Manning Leikai in Imphal” on April 7.
“Today, I learnt that one Wangkheirakpam Manu Devi, aged 93 years, a resident of Chingmeirong Maning Leikei, Imphal East, Manipur, casted her vote under special provision for aged senior citizens. As reported, she was asked to cast her vote only in favour of the candidate listed as Sl. No. 2 by the above mentioned BLO. The said BLO also told her that she would be rewarded with ‘Nga Chanaba’ money for doing so.”
‘Nga Chanaba’ is understood in local parlance as ‘money to buy fish’.
Seeking necessary action against the BLO, the complainant underlined, “Pertinently, the SL No.2 candidate is Th. Basanta Singh, BJP candidate” for the Inner Manipur seat.
On April 8, returning officer Th. Kirankumar initiated a probe into the “serious violation with regard to enticing aged voters” and called for accountability of the said election officer on the matter. Though the district election office later found the complaint “devoid of concrete tangible evidence” against the BLO, it, however, decided to replace the concerned officer with a new booth-level officer to conduct postal voting for senior citizens.
From April 7, BLOs have been making home visits across constituencies that are to see voting in the first phase of electioneering to be able to collect the votes of citizens above 85 years and persons with disabilities.
Concurrently, a similar incident came to light in Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Addressing a press conference on April 7, Tinsukia district commissioner and district election officer Swapneel Paul told reporters, “A polling team was engaged for the purpose of home voting through postal ballot in 82-Doomdooma Assembly Segment under 12-Lakhimpur HPC, comprising Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee, senior branch manager (retd), Assam Gramin Vikash Bank as micro-observer, Bishnubrat Hazarika, lecturer, Tinsukia Polytechnic, and Monjyoti Chetia.”
“When the team submitted the polled postal ballot and the booklet containing counterfoils and un-polled postal ballot papers, it was found that 16 counterfoils had been used for 14 voters,” he said.
According to the Assam Tribune, “Paul further informed that the polling officials and the micro-observer have been barred from all kinds of election duties for the current general elections in Tinsukia district with immediate effect.”
In the 2019 general elections, BJP and its allies had won 18 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the Northeast.
This March 7, Assam chief minister and BJP’s point man in the region, Himanta Biswa Sarma, claimed to reporters that his party would bag 22 of the 25 seats.
The Northeastern states will go to the polls on April 19 and 26, and May 7.
