Ahmedabad

Congress leaders Siddharth Patel, Jitu Patel, city Congress president Chetan Rawal joined by other Congress workers were very angry while making their representation at district collector office in Ahmedabad today afternoon over alleged irregularities in conducting the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation election.

Congress leaders in presence of number of news channel cameras alleged that red color ‘delete’ marks were stamped in voters list on number of pages over the names of particular voters. They alleged that polling staff was denying voting right to those voters.

Congress leaders alleged that the State Election Commission chief Varsh Simha was unavailable and untraceable when Congress leaders tried to contact him in connection with such complains.

Congress leaders also argued that voters list available to them had all the names intact, but same list with polling staff had ‘delete’ mark stamped over many names.

Congress leaders complained that while Sinha was untraceable, the district collector was also not available in office as he was outside taking round.

Due to unavailability of district Collector in office, who could be outside supervising election procedure, Congress leaders made representation before Deputy collector. Former Gujarat Congress president Siddharth Patel who was leading this delegation said the election commission should promptly take action reacting to their complains because polling will end at 5.00 pm and time was running out.

Siddharth Patel also made allegation that electronic voting machines were being rigged using wifi and Bluetooth. He said he didn’t have code number for access, but suppose if someone had knowledge of code, he/she could rig electronic voting machine.

Former BJP MLA Geetaben Patel who was denied party ticket in 2012 assembly polls and later joined Patidar caste group Sardar Patel Group was also present with Congress leaders. She too complained that her name was stamped with ‘delete’ sign in voters list and she was denied voting right by polling staff.

City president Chetan Rawal said district collector office had become BJP headquarters. Congress workers chanted slogans against district collector Beniwal in collector office.

Siddharth Patel, as expected gave this issue a Patidar twist and emphasized that Patidars were deliberately marked with ‘delete’ stamp.

In another development, Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki has called urgent press conference at party headquarters at 2.30 pm.

Update: District Collector of Ahmedbad Shri Beniwal reacting to Congress allegations said that any name of voter can be deleted only through form number 07. Locations of some polling stations may have changed compared to Lok Sabha elections. Voters are requested to use helpline number for help.

– DeshGujarat