Andhra Pradesh   

Up goes EVM dashing their hopes

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, MAY 7. The voters of Venkatayapalem in the Pedakurapadu Assembly constituency in Guntur district on Friday alleged that polling officials took away the electronic voting machine from the village at 3.30 p.m. in a helicopter after the Circle Inspector of Police forcibly stopped the voting process at 2 p.m. on April 26. A Congress agent, Chilukuri Srinivas, at Booth No.18, one among the 50 voters of the village, who came to Guntur on Friday, told mediapersons that the CI had told the polling officials that since the Election Commission perceived threat from naxalites, the polling had to be closed early and prevented more than 200 voters from exercising their franchise.

A majority of voters in the queue at the time of the alleged stopping of polling process were women labourers, who had gone to chilli fields in the morning. While 570 persons had cast their vote out of the 1,100 eligible voters, one and a half hours after the polling was stopped, a helicopter came and the officials took away the EVM, said Desu Brahmam, a villager.

Another villager, Bukke Ramakrishna, alleged that the CI had threatened the villagers with his pistol and asked them to leave the booth, though they wanted to cast their vote. He said the CI had announced at the polling booth that the District Collector had sent instruction for closure of the polling process early as there was naxalite threat.

The Pedakurapadu Assembly segment Congress candidate, Kanna Lakshmi Narayana, told reporters that he had clarified the position with the District Collector, K. Rama Krishna Rao, the same evening, who denied having issued any such order. "The Collector and the Superintendent of Police, Ravi Shankar Ayyannar, have promised an impartial inquiry into the incident, but the Returning Officer, D.Mallikarjuna Rao's report that polling continued till 5 p.m. at the booth is totally false,'' he claimed.

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