Shahkot bypoll: 76.6 per cent polling; 26 VVPATs malfunction during voting

Also on Monday, a former Punjab home minister, Brij Bhupinder Singh Lalli, was held on charges of unauthorised entry into a polling booth while carrying a weapon. He was allegedly carrying a .32 bore revolver. Lalli was arrested from the same booth where Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi Sherowalia had cast his vote in the morning.

At around 3 pm, Lalli (67), who had joined SAD 10 days before the election, was arrested while entering booth number 90-91 at Patti Shahla Nagar near Malsian Town. The former minister was immediately taken to Malsian police post under the Shahkot police station and kept there for nearly six hours before being released on bail.

FIR no. 80 was filed against him in the evening under Sections 132, 134-B of the Representation of the People Act 1951 & 188 IPC at the Shahkot police station.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Ram Gopal and Harish Kumar Vehri, Presiding Officers of booth number 90 and booth number 91 inside Government Elementary School, Patti Shala Nagar, Malsian.

At the time of the incident, supporters of both Congress and Akali Dal entered into an argument, but the situation was brought under control by security personnel. While there were some allegations of tossing of Lalli’s turban during this scuffle, police denied them saying Lalli was detained before workers of both parties arrived at the spot.

At the police station, SAD candidate Naib Singh Kohar visited and met Lalli, who was a minister in the Beant Singh government in 1992. DSP Shahkot Dilbagh Singh said that as per the orders of District Electoral officer (DEO), every licensed weapon was to submitted at the police station during the election and it was the duty of concerned police station to tally the number of weapons deposited. The DSP said that they will look into the matter to find out how this weapon could not be deposited.

Apart from this, there was a scuffle at Umerebilla village where an Akali worker was allegedly attacked by Congress supporters.

AAP candidate Rattan Singh NRI demanded re-polling alleging that several “outsiders” had cast “bogus” votes at polling booth number 172 in Akbarpur Khurad village, adding that the party’s complaint was ignored by the officials. DEO Varinder Sharma, however, dismissed that demand claiming that polling was transparent. During last year’s Assembly elections, Shahkot had polled 78.6 per cent votes.