Damage done, re-poll of no use: Praful Patel

NAGPUR: Nationalist Congress leader and former Union minister Praful Patel has said that the re-poll ordered in 49 booths by the election commission was an admission that all was not well in the election process on Monday.


“We had specific information that at least in 200 booths EVMS or the VVPAT machines were not working for hours. There have been instances of voters standing in vain for the machines to restart. Many returned without voting. So the damage has already been done,” Patel told TOI from Mumbai.

“In a village with farmers busy with agrarian work, you can’t expect them to make the effort to revisit polling stations in the extreme heat conditions. Now, even for the re-poll in which around 45,000 voters can exercise their franchise, there is no guarantee in the rural pockets that they would get information about it in time and go again to the booths on Wednesday. There is also no redress for those voters who returned without voting in other booths where there is no re-poll,” said Patel.

About the removal of Returning Officer Abhimanyu Kale on Tuesday, Patel said the action was inadequate for the “blatant violations”. The NCP leader said Kale was found to have opened the treasury at 11pm on May 25 to carry out transfer of funds for relief disbursal.

“He then went ahead to misuse his powers and issued orders to keep banks open on Saturday and Sunday to make crop loss relief to farmers. The orders for relief were issued some six months ago and disbursal was done in blatant violation of all norms two days before the voting date to influence voters,” Patel alleged.

Congress leader and ex-MP Nana Patole said at least 100 booths were affected because of EVM/VVPAT malfunctioning. “Re-poll is just an eyewash of a corrective action,” said Patole.

BJP poll manager and state power minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who is also the Bhandara district guardian minister, was happy with the re-poll decision. “I had filed complaints about EVM failure. So its good that action has been taken and in correct measure,” said the BJP leader.

Asked about Kale’s transfer in the midst of the poll process, Bawankule said it had nothing to do with the elections and “was a routine administrative decision”.