Assam to Probe ‘Spotting of Polling Officers with Ballot Papers’ amid Contradictory Findings

The Cachar district administration in Assam on Friday said it will conduct an enquiry into media reports that “a few election officers” were spotted with ballot papers here. A preliminary investigation revealed that no official

engaged in the polling process was involved in the reported incident, district Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli told PTI. According to the media reports, the “polling officers were seen with ballot papers on Thursday night”. “Election officers do not discharge their duties at night. Since a section of media reported that a few polling

officers were spotted with ballot papers last night, we will order an enquiry into it,” she said.

Silchar constituency went to the poll in the second phase of the assembly elections on April 1. Referring to a separate incident in connection with dispatching of postal ballot twice to a voter, the district administration said the media reports, in this case, were confusing.

After a proper investigation into the incident, it was found that the postal ballot was sent to a wrong person

because of mistaken identity, according to a statement issued by the district administration.

A teacher of a government school, Sumitra Das, who is a resident of Vivekananda Road area in the town, applied for a postal ballot and the postman delivered it to another Sumitra Das, who also resides in the same locality and is engaged in private tuition, it quoted the DC as saying.

“This is what has come on the surface after our thorough investigation,” Jalli said.

Violence had broken out in Karimganj district of Assam on April 1 after a crowd spotted a BJP candidate’s vehicle

being used to transport a polled EVM to the strong room, forcing the police to fire in the air to bring the situation under control.

The incident snowballed into a huge controversy with the opposition Congress and AIUDF alleging that the EVM was

being “stolen”, prompting the Election Commission to suspended four poll officials and order a repoll at the booth as a video of the fiasco went viral on social media.

Elections to the 126 assembly constituencies in Assam were held in three phases between March 27 and April 6. The

counting of votes will be on May 2.

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