On one side, the government is spending crores on the campaigns to draw public towards the polling booth and on one side, the goons hired by the BJP are trashing those efforts. The residents of Tara Jivapur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district witnessed this weird attack on democracy happened. They alleged that three men who claimed to be from the BJP had “forcefully” applied ink to their fingers and gave them Rs 500 on Saturday in a bid to prevent them from voting in Sunday’s seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections.
One of the villagers told news agency ANI: “They were from BJP and asked us if we’ll vote for the party. They told us now you can’t vote. Don’t tell anyone.”
Taking note of the allegations, Chandauli SDM K R Harsh said villagers are eligible to vote and action will be taken against the accused based on the complaint.
“Complainants are present at the police station. We will take action as per the complaint they file. They are still eligible to cast votes as elections hadn’t begun then. They will have to mention in the FIR that ink was forcefully applied,” he told ANI.
Chandauli is among the 13 Lok Sabha seats in which polling began on Sunday morning. Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey is seeking reelection from Chandauli.
