171 Votes Cast in Assam Booth Having 90 Voters
Total 171 votes were cast in a booth in Assam's Dima Hasao district, even though 90 people were eligible to exercise their franchise.
Assam is holding a three-phase Assembly election that began on March 27. The ruling BJP is hoping for re-election and is fighting against the Congress. The 2nd Phase of elections started in Assam on 1st April. In the Dima Hasao District of Assam, 90 people had registered to vote at a polling booth. Once the voting was done, on checking it was found that 171 votes had been cast on the EVM machines. On 2nd April Five Assam polling personnel had been suspended because of the incident. However, the news about this incident spread on 4th April. Till then no one knew about it. A district official said, “When we began investigating and questioning the polling personnel, they said the chief of the village who had come to vote at the booth had come with his own list of voters. The chief of the village refused to accept the official voters’ list and the villagers cast their votes according to the one the chief was armed with.” The district officials did not clarify why the polling officials let the villagers have their way and whether there were any security personnel present at the polling station. The Election Commission has announced a reelection but the dates have not been announced yet.
