The district election officers on Sunday shifted four poll booths from the house of a sitting councillor contesting the civic polls from ward number 34, bringing relief to the other candidates in the fray.

The Telegraph had reported in its May 13, 2012 edition that four polling booths at Lohia Nagar in Kankerbagh were in the building owned by Kumar Sanjit, the sitting councillor from ward number 34. Acting swiftly, district returning officer Arvind Kumar Tiwari on Sunday convened an emergency meeting of senior election officers and decided to shift the booths to two different schools.

Earlier, the four booths — 34/11 to 14 — were at Tiny Hearts School. The institution is on the first-floor of the house of Sanjit. The sitting councillor stays in the ground floor of the same building.

Admitting that it was a mistake on the part of the district administration, Tiwari said: “According to the earlier notification, booth number 11-14 in the ward were at house number A/133, which belongs to Sanjit. It was clearly against the norms. We have shifted two of them to the government primary school in the locality. The two others have been shifted to AJ Public School in the colony. This should end the controversy.”

Seventeen candidates in the fray had collectively filed a case in Patna High Court against the state election commission demanding a shift of the poll booths. With the change in the venue of the polling stations, they have now decided to withdraw the case.

“We will now take the complaint back as the district poll officials have acted on the issue. We are feeling relieved now. The chances of bogus voting and frauds during polls will be negligible now,” said Binay Kumar, a contestant from the ward.

Sanjit said the shift poll booths from his building would have no impact on his poll fortune.

“It is the sole discretion of the election commission to decide where the poll booths would be located. I am happy that I am out of the controversy now. People in the area love me and will vote for me wherever the polling booths are,” he added.

Sources said Tiny Hearts School was never a polling booth. But there were polling stations in the same building on several occa- sions earlier.