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Bhim meets CEC, demands re-poll in Udhampur
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 4/24/2014 11:52:21 PM
NEW DELHI, Apr 24: Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) candidate from Udhampur parliamentary constituency Prof Bhim Singh Thursday submitted a petition to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) urging re-poll in the entire Doda-Kathua-Udhampur parliamentary constituency.
In the petition, Bhim sought repolling on the pretext that the voting on April 17 was “vitiated with rigging, fraud and EVM manipulation by the Congress and BJP candidates supported and abetted by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.”
He submitted this petition during his meeting with CEC V S Sampath at Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi this morning.
In the meeting, which lasted 30-minutes, Bhim informed the CEC that Gulabgarh assembly segment recorded 82 percent polling which was a total fraud as almost all the male members had migrated to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as they usually would do in the month of April and May to seek work in the adjoining states. He also presented press clippings of local and national newspapers which published stories on the rigging.
He informed the CEC that EVMs in almost all the 38 polling stations in Marwah-Dachchan (Gulabgarh) were snatched by the local police officers and carried in helicopters which (EVMs) reached the office of Returning Officer after four days. The EVMs were taken away by the police leaving polling officers behind, he said.
Bhim said that same thing happened with the EVMs which were used in Gulabgarh for recording votes. Some of the EVMs were taken to Rajouri district and then brought to Kathua after four days.
“This electoral crime was repeated by the government of J&K after 26 years. In 1988, the government of J&K headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah joined by Ghulam Nabi Azad, the then General Secretary-AICC had manipulated and rigged the polls which remained on record,” it was submitted.
Bhim had won by 32,000 votes in 1988 bye-election in the same parliamentary constituency still he was declared defeated by the power that be.
Bhim also presented a book on, ‘Murder of democracy in J&K’ to the CEC which carried the details, which it was described as the “murder of democracy by the Congress and the National Conference in 1988.”
The High Court Judge Justice K K Gupta on an election petition filed by Bhim had quashed the election by holding the election result as void. Since the Lok Sabha was dissolved by the day judgment was delivered on October 15,1992, four years after filing the election petition. By that time, the relevant Lok Sabha stood dissolved and replaced by this way.
Bhim urged the CEC to treat his petition as a challenge to the validity of polls held on April 17, 2014 in Udhampur parliamentary election. He urged the CEC to issue notice to the main contenders namely Ghulam Nabi Azad (Congress) and Dr Jitendra Singh (BJP).
He urged the CEC that rigging could be checked to some extent if the voters identity cards issued by the Election Commission of India were retained by the Presiding Officer at the polling station till the counting was over. He informed CEC that hundreds of dead persons in the hills of Gulabgarh, Marwah Dachchan, Paddar, Bani and Banihal cast their votes which should be verified from the record in the interest of democracy and rule of law.
He said that he had been fighting against electoral fraud committed by the power that be in Delhi and Srinagar which might prove counter productive for national integration and country’s unity if remained unchecked.