Six persons, including five polling officials and a youth, have been arrested by the Assam police on Saturday for their involvement in rigging in a polling booth in Assam during the last phase of polls on April 24.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered re-polling in the booth which will be carried out on Monday between 7 am to 5 pm.The alleged rigging took place at polling station number 35 at Bornijora lP School, located in North Guwahati under Jalukbari Assembly segment of the Gauhati lok Sabha constituency.According to the allegation, the polling officials including the presiding officer had allowed the election agent of a political party to cast votes on behalf of other electorate in the polling station. The agent went to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) several times on the pretext of showing the electorate the voting process and pressed the button several times on their behalf.
The incident came to the light through a local television channel, which captured the visuals of the whole scene. The visuals clearly showed that the polling agent Bimal Boro pressed the EVM button for other electorate several times and that the polling officials remained a silent spectator to this.The BJP and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Saturday moved the Assam Chief Electoral Officer Vijayendra over this.
"We have received formal complaints in the regard. Already a case has been registered against the five polling officials including the presiding officer and the election agent engaged in Bornijora polling station," said Assam's CEO Vijayendra."They have already been arrested by the police and interrogation is on to find out the details of the incident," he said.Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India had also ordered re-polling in 15 polling stations in Kokrajhar, Gauhati, Mangaldai and Nowgong lok Sabha constituencies, which will be held on April 27 from 7 am to 5 pm.
The last phase of polls in Assam which was held on April 24, covered six lok Sabha constituencies-Dhubri, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Nowgong, Gauhati and Mangaldai and it recorded over 80 per cent polling.