Days after several abandoned cases of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines were found in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief BS Yeddyurappa has written to the Election Commission regarding several irregularities in the recent Assembly election process.
“I am still unable to digest this news as it indicates the grave irregularities in the conduct of Assembly elections in Karnataka,” Yeddyurappa wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat on Monday, according to Mint. “This incident has exposed the hollowness of the claim of the Election Commission that assembly elections in Karnataka were held in a fair and free manner.”
Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister last Thursday but resigned two days later as his party, despite being the largest, did not have the numbers to prove its majority. The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), along with the Bahujan Samaj Party and two independents, have the support of 117 MLAs, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has the support of 104 legislators.
Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar, however, said on Monday that the boxes, which were found in Managuli village on Sunday, do not belong to the poll panel. “VVPATs are electronically monitored and can be tracked with the six-digit bar code, one alphabet and five numerals,” Kumar said, according to NDTV. “The VVPATS found in Vijaypura do not have the six-digit code.”
“These boxes do not belong to Vijayapura district and 2,744 VVPATs allotted to the district are safely kept in the strong room,” PTI quoted him as saying. He added: “The Election Commission will initiate strict action against those who are trying to create confusion.” The district police have filed an FIR and have begun investigations, he added.
In his letter, Yeddyurappa alleged that election officials worked to help Congress candidates. “According to me, in many Assembly segments of Bidar and Gulbarga districts, the police officials themselves helped rival candidates distribute money and liquor among the voters,” Yedyurappa wrote. “All the complaints of BJP and its leaders failed to make any impact on the officials.”
“My sincere suggestion to the election commission is it should investigate all the incidents of irregularities which have been brought to the notice of the officials and commission and take a stem action against officials,” he wrote. “In addition to this, the election commission should take a pragmatic look at all these incidents and if necessary fresh elections should ordered for the constituencies where grave mistakes have been taken place.”
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