In a bizarre incident, a man destroyed an electronic voting machine (EVM) in Chapra after he found that his mother did not cast her vote to the party/candidate he had suggested so.
The man first showed his displeasure when his mother said she had voted for the candidate as per her desire “as this was her democratic right”. This further infuriated the man, identified as Ranjit. He went inside the polling booth and threw the EVM on the ground.
As the EVM got damaged, the police arrested Ranjit.
The incident took place when polling was going on for the Saran Lok Sabha constituency where BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy is pitted against RJD’s Chandrika Rai. Incidentally, Chandrika is the ‘samadhi’ of Lalu Prasad and is the father-in-law of Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap, who is fighting a divorce battle with his estranged wife Aishwarya Rai.
“Another EVM was pressed into service after the irate person damaged the electronic voting machine. Eventually, the election was conducted in a peaceful manner,” said the polling officer.
Elsewhere in Bihar, polling for all the five seats, including Saran, Hajipur, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, took place in a peaceful manner with 57.86 per cent voters’ turnout.
The fate of former Union Ministers Shakeel Ahmad and Rajiv Pratap Rudy has been sealed after the fifth phase of polling in Bihar.
The State will witness two more phases of polls on May 12 and 19 for the remaining 16 seats out of total 40 Lok Sabha constituencies.
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