EVM glitches, allegations of booth capturing convulse Rohtak voting
CHANDIGARH:HARYANA registered a 68.87% voter turnout in the penultimate phase of polling on Sunday, as all of its 10 Lok Sabha seats cast their vote.
Polling was marred by sporadic incidents of violence, including one that led to the arrest of two aides of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister in Rohtak; and the filing of two criminal cases, one against a polling official, in Nuh district in Gurgaon constituency.
The voter turnout in the state in 2014 general elections was 71.41 %.
Poll officials in Rohtak prohibited the movement of Haryana BJP minister, Manish Grover after Congress candidate, Deepender Hooda accused him of booth capturing and lodged a complaint against him. Hooda, the son of former chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, is seeking a fourth term from Rohtak.
Hooda accused Grover, the BJP MLA from Rohtak, of entering the polling stations in Rohtak assembly segment and intimidating voters in violation of the law and guidelines of the Election Commission of India (EC).
Two of Grover’s aides — Ramesh Lohar, a history sheeter, and Sunil Kumar — were arrested by the police. Some cartridges, wooden sticks, fake vehicle registration plates were also recovered from their possession, the police said.
Grover, however, denied having received any “house-arrest” directions from the poll officials.
The police also registered two cases: one against the presiding officer of a polling booth in Rewasan village in Nuh segment, Mohammad Shahid for exercising undue influence and violating the model code of conduct; and another against a person in Pipaka village in Gurgaon seat, who was booked for allegedly attempting to cast bogus vote.
In a separate incident, unidentified persons fired shots in the air at Balmiki colony in Fatehabad, a part of Sirsa constituency. The police said soon after firing the shot, the miscreants fled.
In Sonepat, four persons were injured after the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) workers clashed at Salimsar Majra village.
Director General of Police (DGP), Manoj Yadava said that not a single incident of poll related violence was reported from anywhere in the state. “The two incidents of violence reported from Fatehabad and Sonepat districts were not related to elections,” the DGP said.
Polling was stopped for a while due to a technical glitch in the electronics voting machine (EVMS) at some places in Ambala and Yamunanagar districts. Protesting villagers in Mandoli village of Yamunanagar were pacified by the officials after the EVMS were replaced. The BJP which won seven out of the 10 seats in the 2014 elections fielded five sitting MPS this time. The saffron party has also fielded two former bureaucrats, Brijendra Singh from Hisar and Sunita Duggal from Sirsa.
Two union ministers, Krishan Pal Gurjar from Faridabad and Rao Inderjit from Gurgaon also sought re-election. Former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala’s grandson, Arjun Chautala, was the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate from Kurukshetra, while other grandsons, Digvijay and Dushyant Chautala, fought from Sonepat and Hisar on Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) tickets, respectively.