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UP polls: Kanpur mayor booked for breach of secrecy of voting
Legal action is also being initiated against another BJP leader and an SP candidate for a similar violation of EC rules
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Kanpur mayor Pramila Pandey has been booked for allegedly clicking photographs and making a video while exercising her franchise in favour of BJP candidate at a polling booth during the third phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, officials said. They said legal action was also being initiated against another BJP leader Nawab Singh and SP candidate from Kidwai Nagar Abhimanyu Gupta for a similar breach of secrecy of voting .
“Her (Pandey’s) act was a clear violation of the voters’ confidentiality,” said Kanpur Nagar district magistrate Neha Sharma. The case had been registered under relevant sections, she added. The DM further said the Kanpur mayor had violated the rules of the Election Commission of India by revealing the name of the party she voted for. The case was lodged with Gwaltoli police station under which Hudson Memorial School comes where Pandey went to cast her vote near her home.
Later, she uploaded three photographs and a video of hers while she was inside the polling booth and pressing the button for the BJP candidate. It created a furore among other political parties which demanded action. Congress leader Mohammad Naushad said it was a brazen misuse of her position and alleged that the district administration was complicit with it. Samajwadi Party candidate Amitabh Bajpai sent a complaint to the Election Commission of India.
Pandey claimed it wasn’t her but someone else who took the pictures and made the video and posted them on the social media. “Right now, I have the task to make sure voters turn out and vote. I will worry for this FIR later,” she said.
Another BJP leader Nawab Singh made a video while casting his vote in Sisamau while SP candidate Abhimanyu Gupta did so in Kidwai Nagar. District magistrate Neha Sharma said cases were being lodged in these incidents too. Gupta, however, claimed that he deleted the post quickly after it was uploaded without his knowledge.
