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Opposition seeks EC action after purported video shows teen voting 8 times to BJP candidate
The State Election Commission in UP said that it has taken cognisance of the viral video.
The Congress and the Samajwadi Party on Sunday sought action from the Election Commission after a video of a youngster voting several times went viral.
The two-minute video shows the youngster voting for the BJP candidate Mukesh Rajput on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Follow full coverage of the Lok Sabha elections.
According to EC data, Rajput is a BJP candidate from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Hindustan Times, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
While sharing the video, the Congress urged the poll body to “wake up” and take action.
“Dear Election Commission, do you see this? One person is voting 8 times. It's time to wake up,” the party wrote on X.
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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also shared the video and sought action from the Election Commission.
“If the Election Commission feels that this is wrong, they should certainly take some action, otherwise...” Yadav wrote on x. “BJP's booth committee is actually a loot committee.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP wants to undermine the mandate by pressuring government machinery to loot democracy.
“The Congress expects all officials on election duty to not forget their constitutional responsibilities in the face of power pressure,” Gandhi wrote on X. "Otherwise when INDIA (bloc) forms the government, action will be taken so that no one will dare disrespect the 'oath of the Constitution' without thinking ten times.”
The State Election Commission said it has taken cognisance of the viral video. “Concerned district election officer has been directed to take prompt and effective action,” they wrote on X.
Earlier this month, a video of a BJP leader's minor son casting a vote at the Berasia polling booth in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal went viral.
The boy – reportedly BJP panchayat leader Vinay Mehar's son – was seen casting a vote on the EVM on behalf of his father, who was accompanying him.
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As the video went viral, Congress slammed the saffron party, saying it had reduced the poll body to a child's plaything.
"BJP has turned the Election Commission into a child's plaything. In Bhopal, the BJP's district panchayat member Vinay Mehar got his minor son to cast his vote. Vinay Mehar also made a video of the time when he cast his vote. Vinay Mehar posted the video on Facebook," Piyush Babele, media advisor in the office of Kamal Nath, had written.
