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Congress wants panel to probe poll rigging

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JUNE 21 .At the end of three days of marathon discussions to review the party's performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, the State unit of the Congress Party has reached the conclusion that there was massive rigging and booth capturing by the Bharatiya Janata Party in more than a dozen Parliamentary constituencies in the State.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress unit president, Subhash Yadav, made this assertion at a press conference held at the party headquarters here today. He said that the way the Parliamentary elections were rigged "with the support of the official election machinery'' shows that there was a total breakdown of the constitutional system in the State.

Mr. Yadav said that no action had been taken so far on 37 complaints of electoral malpractices and capturing of booths that were pending with the Election Commission. He said that a Commission should be set up to inquire into the complaints of rigging of elections.

Mr. Yadav said that the elections were rigged and there was massive booth capturing by the BJP in Mandsaur, Morena, Gwalior, Indore, Chhindwara, Rewa, Khargone, Khajuraho, Ujjain, Jhabua,

Hoshangabad, Guna and Bhopal. The defeated Congress candidate from Bhind, Satyadev Katare, was also present at the press briefing and gave a detailed account of alleged rigging of the election in his constituency.

He even accused the son of the winning BJP candidate of "packing the electronic voting machines with votes in many booths many hours before the commencement of polling on May 10."

The State Congress president cited the example of the Guna constituency, represented in Parliament by Jyotiraditya Scindia and said that repolling had been ordered in only 10 polling booths in this constituency whereas the number of polling booths captured was as high as 80. Similarly, he said, there was large scale rigging in

Bhind and Khajuraho constituencies.

Mr. Yadav said that the State Congress unit would expose the role of the Election Commission as well as the State election authority that had taken "special care to serve the interests of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh."

He said that the Central Government would be approached to ensure the setting up of an inquiry commission to probe the complaints of rigging. He said that Congressmen even approached the Supreme Court to file a public interest litigation urging the Apex Court to direct the Election Commission to act on complaints of booth capturing and rigging in Madhya Pradesh.

He said that a copy of their complaint was being sent to the President, Government of India and the Madhya Pradesh Governor.

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