UP: SC members allege being prevented from voting

Allege that BJP members approached many members of the community and asked them not to cast their votes

Residents of an Uttar Pradesh village in Chandauli Lok Sabha constituency, near Varanasi, alleged on Sunday that some people forcefully applied ink on their fingers in a bid to prevent them from voting.

The inmates of the Scheduled Caste (SC) hamlet in Tara Jivanpur village said that alleged members of the BJP approached many members of the community late on Saturday night and asked them not to cast their votes.

''They later bribed some SC voters with cash payments and forcefully applied ink on their fingers,'' alleged Virendra Kumar, one of the residents of the village.

''Who are you (people) going to vote for?....Now you can not vote as we have applied ink on your fingers,'' he quoted the outsiders as telling them.

Another woman resident of the village also alleged that ink was applied to her fingers and she was given a Re. five hundred note. ''They told me that my vote had already been cast,'' she said.

As the news spread, Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Sanjay Chauhan embarked on a dharna demanding registration of a case against the BJP leaders in this regard.

''We have received information that the BJP workers were forcefully applying ink on the fingers of people in many Dalit hamlets in the constituency...they are also distributing cash,'' he alleged.

Police said that a complaint had been registered and the matter was being investigated.