Shiv Sena MLA Santosh Bangar was on Tuesday booked for allegedly violating the election rules after a video showed him entering a polling booth while a woman was casting her vote during the local body polls in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, The Indian Express reported.
Bangar belongs to the Shiv Sena faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The incident took place inside a booth in the Bazaar area of Kalamnuri town.
On Tuesday, voting was underway for more than 260 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in the state.
The video widely shared online purportedly showed Bangar entering the polling booth, peeking into the enclosure and speaking to the woman who was casting her vote.
Opposition leader Varsha Gaikwad alleged that Bangar was “directly telling a lady to vote for him”.
“His supporter then looks inside the polling enclosure and points out the button to the lady,” the Congress leader alleged on social media. “He and his supporters are openly using phones inside the booth.”
“How can they call this a free and fair election?” Gaikwad asked.
The video showed Bangar allegedly shouting political slogans inside the polling booth, The Indian Express reported.
Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that “people’s representatives should maintain the spirit of democracy” and should “think about how we are behaving in the elections, what message we are giving”, ABP Mazha reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, PTI reported that election officials had ordered an investigation into the matter.
An unidentified election official was quoted as saying that the returning officer at the booth has been asked to submit a report about the incident. Action will be taken based on the report, the polling official said.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday postponed the counting of votes in the elections from December 3 to December 21. The Nagpur bench said that declaring the results in phases would “materially influence” voting and the outcome of the second leg of polls scheduled to take place later this month.
Last week, the State Election Commission rescheduled polls in 24 local bodies to December 20 after identifying irregularities related to withdrawal timelines and symbol allocation.
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