Congress asks EC to ensure every poll official follows rules in LS election

The Congress on Wednesday demanded immediate suspension of the poll officials who have been made respondents in a case in the Gujarat High Court for violation of rules during counting of votes in the Dholka Assembly constituency and asked the EC to ensure that every official follows rules and does not take sides in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi and Shaktisinh Gohil said the BJP's Bhupendrasinh Chudasama won the Dholka seat in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls by a margin of 327 votes, which was even less than the 429 postal ballots that were rejected by the returning officer.

The "strictures" by the court making the poll officials respondents in the case were an example for other poll officials to ensure that the Lok Sabha election was free and fair and that they should not side with anyone, Singhvi said. He added that when the court asked the poll officials why did they violate the rules, they had no answer and admitted to their not adhering to rules.

Gohil said 1,356 postal ballots of officials were received for the polls, of which 427 were declared invalid by the election officials. Expressing surprise at the invalidation of such a large number of ballot papers, the Congress leaders said in such a situation, re-counting was to be done automatically, which was overlooked. "There were total 1,356 ballots and in case the margin of victory is less than the number of postal ballots, there has to be re-counting, a rule which was clearly violated allegedly in favour of the BJP candidate," Gohil said.

He added that the returning officer had admitted that he was using a telephone inside the polling booth, which was not allowed. A petition in this regard was filed by Congress candidate Ashwani Rathod in the high court. The court has made returning officer Dhawal Jani, observer Vineeta Vora and the Election Commission (EC) parties in the case for violating rules, the two leaders claimed, and noted that this was rare.