TNN, Lucknow :
Virtually giving a clean chit to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Election Commission of India on Saturday said that Rahul had not violated secrecy of voting by entering an electronic voting machine enclosure in one of the polling booths in Amethi parliamentary constituency on May 7.
Speaking to TOI, a senior UP election official privy to the probe into this incident, said, “As far as Rahul Gandhi’s foraying into the EVM area in a polling booth is concerned, Rahul was inspecting an Electronic Voting Machine, which had become defective. The said the EVM was not used for polling purposes. And there is no question of giving any clean chit to anyone.
Our investigation is simply based on facts.”
When asked about complaints that Gandhi had violated secrecy of voting by entering into a voting compartment on the day of polling in his constituency, the election official said that no case is made out.
The ECI had received reports from the district magistrate of Amethi, who is also the returning officer of the parliamentary constituency, and from others that at the time when Rahul Gandhi entered the enclosure around 10.30am, the EVM was not working, as it had developed some fault. “Rahul Gandhi had gone to see the electronic voting machine, which was not working. When he went there, there was no polling going on,” he said.
On May 8, there was huge controversy when newspapers carried pictures of Rahul Gandhi examining an EVM and coming out of the polling booth raising demands that the Election Commission of India should take action against him. The ECI, on May 9, had asked additional chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh Alok Tiwari to conduct further investigations into the report submitted by the district magistrate of Amethi and ascertain whether Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi violated electoral law by entering the EVM area of polling booths during voting in Amethi on May 7. “As per the directions issued by the ECI, additional chief electoral officer Alok Tiwari has been asked to verify the report submitted by the district magistrate and further investigate into the incident of Rahul Gandhi’s entry into the EVM area in polling booths in Amethi during voting,” said a senior ECI official.
