Rajya Sabha polls: Blamed for rejected vote, Haryana MLA Kiran Choudhry slams ‘scandalous campaign’

Choudhry has hit back, calling the accusations against her a “scandalous and sinister campaign”. “It is a secret ballot and no one can know about its contents. This is absolutely scandalous. I shall take legal recourse against this scandalous campaign against me,” Choudhry told The Indian Express.

“I am a committed party person and know the difference between a tick mark and a numeric. The counterfoil and the ballot are sealed immediately after the polling. The first thing done is that the extra ballots are sealed. There is no way of knowing who had voted when the counterfoil is sealed. Now, how can anybody say that it was my vote that was rejected?” Choudhry asked.

She went on to say, “The ballot is a secret ballot. In every poll, a few extra ballots are issued. The Election Commission seals all those ballots immediately after the polling gets over. Here, in this case, the matter had reached the Chief Election Commission and the ballot papers were already sealed. After the CEC gave clearance for the voting, only then were the ballot papers de-sealed. Even the Returning Officer has no access to the ballot papers as the matter had reached the CEC.”

“How could the Returning Officer or anybody else make out whose vote was being rejected, for any violation of norms? How could anybody reach this conclusion as to whose vote it was,” Choudhry asked.