TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Suspecting a conspiracy to deny his voters in Navelim segment the fundamental right to vote, Trinamool Congress South Goa candidate Churchill Alemao on Monday demanded immediate suspension of booth-level officer of booth No 3 of Navelim segment for sending away 49 voters without casting their vote.
Churchill has threatened to pursue the matter right up to the Supreme Court if election authorities fail to take cognisance of his complaint and suspend BLO Shivaji Sable immediately pending an inquiry. “Last time around, they manipulated EVMs to ensure my defeat in the Assembly poll. Now, they have used the BLO to deny my supporters the right to vote”, he told the media, while suspecting the hand of a senior Congress leader based in Delhi, who had returned to Goa on the eve of the Lok Sabha poll.
He said these 49 voters had cast their vote in the 2012 Assembly poll and their names figured on the electoral roll issued this month. “When the 49 voters went gone to the polling station to cast their votes, the BLO showed a duplicate roll where their names stand deleted. I demand that the election authorities take serious note of the deletion of names. If they could do chicanery at one booth, just imagine the extent to which these people have gone to keep my voters away”, Churchill said.
Churchill said a candidate cannot get justice when BLOs are being used to play mischief with voters. “Election should be free and fair. Let the Election Commission investigate the matter in detail and tell the 49 voters and the Goan public in general on the episode”, he said.
His election agent Prashant Naik said while names of the 49 voters figure in the election roll issued by the ECI, how the BLO could use a duplicate electoral roll to play mischief. “All these 49 voters were not even issued voter slips by the BLO, who is also a resident of the same ward”, Naik said.
Some of the voters, who made their appearance at the media briefing, claimed they were sent back by the BLO saying their names have been deleted from the roll. “We had voted in the 2012 Assembly election. We have neither shifted our residence nor have been absent from our residence. The election authorities have denied us our fundamental right to vote”, they lamented.
