Ballistic over bogus voting,Prem goes hammer and tongs at EC

If at 80,Northeast Delhi BJP candidate B L Sharma Prem was expected maintain a dignified distance on Thursday and let the polling process take its own course...

If at 80,Northeast Delhi BJP candidate B L Sharma Prem was expected maintain a dignified distance on Thursday and let the polling process take its own course,he lived up to none of those expectations. Clearly ruffled by early voting trends in the constituency that showed Congress taking a lead,Sharma blamed the Congress as well as Chief Election Commission Naveen Chawla,whom he accused of tampering with EVMs and allowing bogus voting to help the Congress get back to power. He even went to the extent of alleging that Chawla had been given the duty of arranging Sonia and Rajiv Gandhis wedding.

Upon receiving complaints of faulty EVMs and bogus voting from eight polling locations at a party office in Shiv Vihar,Sharma flew into a rage,retied his turban and stormed to polling station number 109 at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar,from where a complaint of bogus voting had come in.

As policemen struggled to keep the BJP leader and mediapersons out,B L Sharma shouted his lungs out while his workers forced the iron gates open.

Once inside,Prem screamed at the election officer and accused him of telling his polling agent to leave the booth to facilitate rigging of votes. He even sat on dharna in front of the booth,which,though,got over the moment the shutterbugs left the place.

Sharma told mediapersons his suspicions on possible rigging began when he went to cast his vote at polling station number 147 in the New Delhi constituency in the morning,only to find that the EVM machine at the booth was out of order for at least one-and-a-half hour.

In the New Delhi constituency,an engineer told me a button on the machine seemed to be stuck in the pressed mode even when it was not in use.

He gave me a clear indication that the button was stuck at the Hand symbol, Sharma alleged.

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As Sharmas supporters disrupted voting,Congress workers in the area began counter sloganeering and the groups came close to a confrontation. The police had to call for reinforcements that brought the situation under control. Sharma left the place as locals shouted slogans against him.

Since morning,there have been many such cases. This will definitely affect the result of the elections, Sharma said.

Till late evening,Sharma was contemplating on demanding a repoll.

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