Telangana: Repoll in 3 poll stations today due to voter impersonation

HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has ordered repolling in three polling stations — one each in Kamareddy, Mahbubnagar and Nizamabad districts —following allegations of impersonation. The repoll will be held on January 24 between 7am and 5 pm. Incidentally, in all the impersonation cases, women cast votes.
According to TSEC secretary M Ashok Kumar, a woman voter, wearing a burqa, entered the polling station number 101 in Ward No 41 of Kamareddy municipality cast her vote in the morning at about 7.45 am.At about 4pm, another woman with the same voter slip number, claiming she was the genuine voter, cast a tendered vote with the permission of the presiding officer. The district collector admitted that there was laxity in the identification of the voter and also polling agents did not object to the impersonation due to either collusion among them or appointment of ineligible persons as polling agents.
At polling station 87 of Ward No 32 of Bodhan municipality, a woman voter, also wearing a burqa, walked into the booth around 10.45am and cast here vote. Later, around 1.45pm, another woman, claiming to be the actual voter, found her vote had already been cast by another woman. She produced her Aadhaar and other identity proofs too. She was allowed to cast a tendered vote after verification. The district collector found grave irregularities in the conduct of poll process at the polling station. In this municipality too, the SEC ordered repoll on January 24.
Repoll was also ordered in the Mahbubnagar municipality, where-in polling station 198 of Ward No 41, two burqa-clad women cast their votes. “When the polling staff asked them to remove the burqa, the women refused to do it stating that it was against their custom. They were allowed to vote based on their documents. The original voters came in the afternoon and exercised their tendered vote,” the secretary said.