Election fraud claims hit Congress president poll; Tharoor camp levels serious charges
Tharoor camp's Chief Election Agent Salman Soz has, in a series of letters shot to Returning Officer Madhusudan Mistry, listed a number of malpractices witnessed during the election process.
FollowDrama ensued at the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi during the counting of votes to elect a new party president after the Shashi Tharoor camp claimed certain irregularities in the polling process in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana.
Tharoor camp's Chief Election Agent Salman Soz has, in a series of letters shot to Returning Officer Madhusudan Mistry, listed a number of malpractices witnessed during the election process.
In Uttar Pradesh, the Tharoor camp claimed that official seals were missing from six ballot boxes, which made the voting in Uttar Pradesh void. They even shared pictures of ballot boxes with the unofficial sealing mechanism. Besides this, the Tharoor camp also raised the issue of unofficial persons being inside the polling booth in violation of the election guideline permitting one polling agent of the contesting candidate to access the polling booths to observe the polling on behalf of the candidate.
'In Uttar Pradesh, there were three additional persons (none of them was a Pradesh Returning Officer, APRO, DRO or a polling agent) in each booth who were sitting inside the polling booth, and they were acting like the presiding officers whose role was to check the delegate card of the voters and match then with their government ID cards like Aadhar, Voter ID, PAN and, if they found them to be genuine, then allow delegates to vote. Without exception, these people are influential local leaders and national and state office bearers,' the letter read.
'Attempts at bogus voting part of systematic effort involving senior PCC leaders'
In Punjab, the Tharoor camp claimed that the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Chief was handing over the delegate cards to the delegates by personally calling them in his room one by one with the ulterior motive of coercing them to vote in favour of Mallikarjun Kharge.
'The PPCC Chief was, in violation of the polling instructions, present inside the polling booth on a regular basis for the entire period of polling and was allowing bogus voting to which our agent objected. Upon this, the PPCC Chief threatened our agent in the presence of the Pradesh Returning Officer & APROs. It is pertinent to mention that we objected to around 9 instances of unauthorized persons who were trying to vote, but no action was taken against them. When our agent asserted his disagreement, he subjected our agent to condescending and derisive remarks in order to suppress dissent during the voting process. Attempts at bogus voting were part of a systematic effort involving senior PCC leaders and some, if not all, returning officers,' the letter said.
Further, the Tharoor camp also claimed that PPCC Chief and Pradesh Returning Officer continued the voting till 4:45 PM in order to accommodate 9-10 voters, which is a clear violation of the instruction of the CEA. 'It is pertinent to mention that PPCC Chief and Pradesh Returning Officer coerced our agent into consenting to allow voting well past the deadline. Despite severe pressure, our agents performed their duties with diligence and tried their best to ensure the integrity of the voting process. It is tragic that those who are appointed to positions of responsibility operate in a way that damages the reputation of our beloved Party,' Soz said in the letter.
'Many PROs did not travel back directly with sealed ballot boxes'
The Tharoor camp identified a number of issues in Telangana as well. In the letter to Mistry, the camp's Chief Election Agent wrote: 'A number of senior leaders from the PCC did identify issues with the changes made to the list of delegates and conduct of the office bearers of the PCC. It is well known that some of these leaders protested in front of the Gandhi Bhavan. These included Ponnala Laxmaiah (ex-PCC President), Damodara Rajanara Simha (ex-Dy CM) and others.'
'It has been brought to our notice that many Pradesh Returning Officers did not travel back directly with the sealed ballot boxes to New Delhi and halted in between. We have also repeatedly asked for the travel schedule of PROs so that our agents could also accompany them on their respective flights to New Delhi to assuage any concerns regarding the security of the ballot boxes while in transit,' they added.
