EC to decide on the voter IDs by Thursday

New Delhi/Bengaluru: The seizure of more than 9700 voter IDs in an apartment in Bengaluru will get a fast verdict as Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar has been asked to submit a report on the matter by Thursday, two days prior to the elections. The Election Commission asserted that the issue has been taken seriously and that the Bengaluru Police Commissioner, State Chief Electoral Officer and the Deputy Election Commissioner were directed to get to the bottom of the facts.

The Chief Electoral Officer has submitted a ground report to the Commission, according to which, the door of the flat was found to be forced open when the State Election officials reached there on Tuesday. The voter IDs were found to be genuine while, on the other hand, counterfoil strips bearing close resemblance to the acknowledgement slips of Form 6 used for adding new names to the electoral rolls were also found.

The incident has resulted in a war of words between the BJP and the Congress, with each party briefing the media about how the other party would have carried out the malpractice. Both the parties have filed petitions to the Election Commission seeking an impartial probe into the matter. Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said that his party has submitted a memorandum to the Commission outlining the malpractice and the “concerted attempt” of the BJP in this incident which targets the Congress.

Simultaneously, the BJP also sent a delegation to the Election Commission comprising Union Ministers J.P. Nadda, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Smriti Irani. They demanded a probe into the matter and asked the Commission to countermand the polls in the constituency. Nadda claimed that the incident was “enough evidence” to prove that the Congress was using unfair means to influence voters.