171 votes cast in Assam booth that has 90 voters

Haflong (Assam): As Assam gears up for polls in the last of the three phases on Tuesday to decide the fate of 337 candidates in 40 assembly constituencies, a massive irregularity has come to light in a booth in Dima Hasao district where a total of 171 votes were cast even though 90 people were eligible to exercise their franchise, officials said on Monday.

The booth is in the Haflong constituency, which went to the polls in the second phase on April 1. Haflong witnessed 74 per cent polling.

As the incident came to light, the District Election Officer suspended five poll officials of the booth, set up at 107(A) Khotlir LP School, and proposed a repoll.

However, the official order for re-election at the booth, an auxiliary polling station of the main voting centre at Mouldam LP School, is yet to be issued.

The suspension order by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer of Dima Hasao was issued on April 2, the next day of polling, but it came to light on Monday morning.

Stating "dereliction of duty", the EC suspended Seikhosiem Lhangum (Sector Officer), Prahlad Ch Roy (Presiding Officer), Parameswar Charangsa (first Polling Officer), Swaraj Kanti Das (second Polling Officer) and Lalzamlo Thiek (third Polling Officer) with immediate effect.

The voters' list of the polling station had 90 names but 171 votes were cast in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), officials said.

"The head of that interior village refused to accept the voters' list and brought a list of his own. Then, the people of the village voted according to that list," an official said.

It was not immediately known why the polling officials accepted the village head's demand and whether there was any security personnel present at the polling station or the role they played.

Meanwhile, altogether 2,813 cases of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations have been reported since the announcement of the election to the 126-member Assam Assembly, Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Khade said on Monday.

At least 1,347 complaints were received online through the cVigil app and 1,466 were received offline through Form B9 and 947 of the complaints received online have been already disposed of, he said.

Assam is all set to witness direct and triangular contests in 40 assembly constituencies that are going to polls on Tuesday, including senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his five Cabinet colleagues and BJP state unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass.With agency inputs