All votes cast went in BJP’s favour: Villagers

Poll official on duty in Maha village denies claim

Pune, Oct. 22: Voters in a Maharashtra village have alleged EVM malfunction during the Lok Sabha bypoll on Monday, saying it resulted in votes cast for any candidate going to BJP’s account, a claim denied by poll officials.

NCP legislator Shahshikant Shinde said he was witness to such a thing happening when he visited the polling booth in Navlewadi village in Satara district.

Kirti Nalawade, the returning officer for the Koregaon Assembly segment in Western Maharashtra, where this village is located, refuted the claim.

Mr Shinde said the EC should take a serious note of this incident and initiate steps to check its recurrence.

Villagers said votes cast in favour of the NCP nominee Srinivas Patil were going into the “account” of BJP candidate Udayanraje Bhosale, a claim the district election officials rejected.

Mr Shinde said when he reached the polling station and raised the issue with the election officials from the booth, they hurriedly changed the EVM machine. Bypoll for Satara LS constituency was held simultaneously

with the Assembly poll on October 21.

“I received a call from some voters and our party workers who informed me that votes cast for the NCP candidate were going to the BJP nominee. By the time I reached there, around 270 votes were cast in a similar manner,” Mr Shinde said.

Mr Shinde said as some voters had expressed their doubts, the NCP polling booth agents asked the officials to verify the claims.

Before polling commenced in the morning, a mock poll was held in the presence of all polling booth agents and at that time, no one had raised any objection. Polling went on smoothly till 4 pm, Ms Nalawade added.