67 per cent turnout in Jorhat, allegations of rigging

From a Correspondent

JORHAT, February 9: Amidst allegation and counter allegation of rigging by both the Congress and Bharatiya Jata Party (BJP), elections to select candidates for the Jorhat Municipal Board concluded at 4 pm on Monday in Jorhat with an overall total voting of 67 per cent reported from all the 19 wards of the city.

There was a clash between the opponent parties in wards no 2 and 8, contested by Arifa Zaman and former chairman of JMB, Prasanta Bora of Congress against Pranjit Kumar Das and Praveer Saikia of the BJP when both were seen complaining about the expulsion of a BLO (Block Level Officer) responsible for identification of voters and on the other hand wife and relatives of the candidates thronging the voting room despite orders to remain 100 meters away from the polling station. Meanwhile in ward no 15 almost 100 voters who had their mes in the electoral list were deprived of voting as their mes did not figure in the list and even those who had their mes could not vote as their votes was already cast by others. Talking to The Sentinel, Monmi Barua said, “I went to cast my vote but was returned by the presiding officer who said that my vote against serial number 455 had already been cast. Even my husband Bipul Barua’s me was not found.”

Nipul Sharma and Tingku Sharma of the same ward said, “The deprivation of more than 100 voters of the Sori gaon area in Jorhat contested by Pabitra Bordoloi of the Congress and Paban Bordoloi of the BJP is as a result of the wrong census done by the Anganwadi workers who we think must be working as agents of some political party. Despite having mes in the electoral list we were denied voting. Even some people of the region who are already dead still have their mes in the list which means that in the absence of verification and identification, the poll process can be easily rigged.”