Cong rings strong room mischief alarm in Jagtial
Congress candidate Adluri Laxman had lost the election to the BRS Koppula Eshwar by 441 votes, and approached the High Court seeking a recount. (Twitter)
Hyderabad: Alleging ‘mischief’ over the keys to the EVM strong room of the Dharmapuri Assembly constituency going missing, the Congress asked Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar to order thorough inquiry into the episode.
The strong room at VRK College holds the EVMs used in the 2018 Assembly constituency to the Dharmapuri (SC) constituency. Congress candidate Adluri Laxman had lost the election to the BRS’ Koppula Eshwar by 441 votes, and approached the High Court seeking a recount.
Officials claimed the key to the EVM room was missing, when the time to came to open it on court orders.
In his complaint to the CEC, PCC senior vice-president G. Niranjan requested a probe by a senior official of Election Commission of India to find out the truth and punish the culprits. He said since the constituency was represented by minister Eshwar, there was something fishy. “It seems that some mischief,” he alleged.
The High Court had ordered officials to submit the documents pertaining to 17A and 17C along with CCTV footage and proceedings of the election. “The EVMs and documents of this election were preserved in three strong rooms in VRK College in Malyala mandal of Jagtial district, he said.
The officials in the presence of the district collector and representatives of political parties claimed they could not find the keys to two of the three strong rooms in which the EVMs were stored. “This shows the negligence of authorities particularly in keeping the keys in safe custody as the election petition is pending. It is brought to our notice that numbers on keys and locks are not tallying,” he explained.
