23 arrested after poll official manhandled, ballot units damaged in Karnataka village

Villagers of Masabinala in Vijayapura district stopped a poll duty vehicle carrying electronic voting machines (EVMs), manhandled an officer and damaged control and ballot units on Wednesday following which 23 people were arrested, the Election Commission said.

The villagers stopped a section officer’s vehicle which was carrying reserved EVMs for the Assembly elections and damaged two control and ballot units each and three VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail), the EC said in a statement. ”Sector officer was manhandled. 23 people arrested”, the EC said, adding, top district officials rushed to the village, which comes under Basavana Bagewadi Assembly segment. According to Police sources, the villagers’ ”action” came after ”rumours” that officials were ”changing” the EVMs and VVPATs. Meanwhile, in Padmanabhanagar constituency here, some youth armed with sticks attacked their political rivals in a polling booth at Papaiah Garden. They went on a rampage in which a few women standing in queue to vote sustained injuries, the sources said.

In another incident at Sanjeevarayanakote in Ballari district, some Congress and the BJP workers came to blows.