The Election Commission on Tuesday ordered re-poll in the only booth of Andhalewadi village in Ashti taluka of Beed constituency on April 24, following reports of alleged booth capturing by the BJP workers on April 17.
The EC’s announcement of a re-poll in Andhalewadi village came after Beed Collector and District Election Officer Naval Kishore Ram submitted a report on the April 17 incident — in which at least 15 BJP workers barged into the only polling booth (No 213) in Andhalewadi village and took control of the polling station half-an-hour before the polling was scheduled to end at 6 pm.
“We wrote to the Election Commission seeking a re-poll here and it has been approved. We have made necessary preparations to conduct re-poll in the Andhawadi poll booth on April 24,” the Beed District Collector said.
An inquiry conducted by the district administration into the incident revealed that as against the total 395 electors, listed as voters for the Andhalewadi poll booth, as many as 303 have voted.
However, the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) showed that as many as 311 votes have been registered in the machine. The election staff told the district collector that the booth captors forcibly cast the additional eight votes into the EVM.
Immediately the local police registered a complaint and arrested 10 people on charges of capturing the booth.
Police said that the arrested persons were students in colleges of Aurangabad, Ashti and Ahmednagar and have been remanded in police custody till April 22 now.