Supporters of business rivals Krishna Yadav and Jai Singh Yadav clashed on Ratu Road in the capital today, charging each other of casting bogus votes. Krishna Yadav is the RJD candidate from Ranchi while Jai Singh was expelled from the RJD by party president Laloo Prasad Yadav in 2003.
Krishna has demanded re-election in the constituency. Firearms were also brandished at booth number 39 in Gaya Babu Street (also known as Metro Gali). The incident was reported at around 9.30 am. Jai Singh said he was threatened with a pistol when he went inside the booth to vote.
?Krishna brandished a pistol and told me to get out of the booth. When I went inside, at least 100 RJD supporters were disrupting the poll process. They slapped and thrashed me when I resisted their move,? Jai Singh Yadav said.
The entire administrative top brass of Ranchi, including deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar and senior superintendent of police Anurag Gupta reached the spot in 20 minutes.
At least 100 bogus voters, many of them in their mid-teens, were chased away by the police. Both Krishna and Jai Singh were detained at Sukhdeo Nagar police station till the polling was over. Enmity between Krishna and Jai Singh revolves around the maintenance contracts for the bus stand located on Ratu Road.
Votes stalled
Allegations of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and technical snags marred voting in a few booths in Khijri constituency today.
In booth numbers 189 and 190 in St. Joseph?s School, Samlong, voting had to be called off after 72 votes were polled as people alleged that the machines were tampered to favour a national political party. Polling in the two booths was stalled for more than two hours. Angry supporters of different regional and national parties surrounded the presiding officer, Shivendra Singh, demanding that he discontinue voting in the two booths. A handful of the armed police force remained mute spectators as local residents took over the two booths, stopping the presiding officer from fixing the new voting machines.
A supporter of a regional party tore off the paper which had the booth number and scrawled ?Aaj vote nahin hoga? (No voting today) in front of the security personnel.
Succumbing to the pressure of local residents and party workers, Singh left the spot.
Dead woman voting
Sarojini Devi, 73, cast her vote today. Never mind if she has died two-and-half-years ago. Sarojini?s name was on the long voters? list of names in booth number 199 at Chutia in Ranchi constituency and someone even went ahead and cast her vote.
Like Sarojini, many names in the voters? list are of people who have either died or have left the town and are settled outside. The gross irregularities in the voters? list led to confusion and mismanagement in many polling booths in the capital during the second phase of Assembly election today. People complained that names and numbers of polling booths on their voters? identity cards did not match lists put up outside the polling stations. There were also instances of people, whose name figured in more than one polling booth. The voters also complained of inefficient polling officials, who didn?t ask for any identification before letting people vote.
Franklin Baxla, a professor at St Xavier?s College, told The Telegraph that even though he had got his voters? identity card, his name is not on the voters? list . ?Without my name on the list, there is no use of the voters? card and I cannot cast my vote,? Baxla rued. Indian Medical Association state secretary Ajay Kumar Singh was furious as neither his name nor names of his family members figured on the voters? list. Singh, a resident of Kanke for the past 41 years, has also written a letter to the election commission questioning the fairness of the polls.
The presiding officer at Ashok Nagar said, ?This is the election commission?s job. We have nothing to do in the matter.?
Ignorance is bliss
Unruffled by the brouhaha over election all around them, children in the Hafamuni village in Bishunpur were dancing to the tune of a popular Nagpuria number. Most have taken to attending school regularly after the mid-day meal scheme was introduced, but they do not know the name of the chief minister. They are glad about the holiday, though.
Patience pays
As in many other booths across the state, voting in a few booths in Hatia constituency tripped on snags in voting machines. Polling was, however, peaceful as patient voters bore with the delay for over an hour. Polling magistrate Amresh Sinha was relieved after the EVM was back to work. ?I thank the people for being so understanding,? he said.
