Days after three men were caught carrying EVM and VVPAT machines on two-wheelers, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered repolling in one of the booths in Velachery Assembly constituency in Chennai.
The repoll at booth no. 92 of Velachery constituency will be held between 7 am and 7 pm on April 17 (Saturday), the ECI has said in a notification. The decision to hold a repoll in the said booth was taken after the agency received a report from the Returning Officer and observers.
The booth had a total of 540 votes and 220 people had exercised their franchise on April 6. However, three staff members of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) were caught carrying two EVMs and one VVPAT machine in a two-wheeler the same evening.
While the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) initially said the machines recovered were not used during polling, he retracted the statement two days later to admit that 15 votes had been registered in one of the machines.
Velachery is an urban middle-class constituency in Chennai that is witnessing an intense fight between AIADMK's M K Ashok, Congress candidate J M H Aassan Maulaana and Makkal Needhi Maiam's Dr Santhosh Babu, who quit IAS and joined politics.
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