BALASORE: Congress here has charged the State Election Commission with favouring the ruling party. The party leaders alleged that the SEC, which had earlier given green signal for recounting votes in a booth, refused to do so when a Congress-supported candidate appeared to be winning. Jyotsnarani Mahalik had won the election as sarpanch of Routpada panchayat under Basta block by a margin of nine votes. She was again officially declared elected on February 21 at the block office.However, following an appeal from the opposite group for recounting, the block officials stated that all the rejected votes of booths 1, 3 and 9 were valid during recounting and declared that Jyotsnarani lost the poll by three votes. Protesting this, Congress leaders led by Mahadev Das and block Congress president Satyanarayan Gupta staged a dharna before the block office till February 22 evening.Later, they lodged a written complaint with the District Collector demanding recounting. “Following report of the Collector, the SEC had intimated both the Collector and the complainant through separate letters stating that the recounting will be held at the former’s office on February 24. But when we reached the office, the Collector told us there would be no recounting,” said Das. With the constituency home to Steel, Industry and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty, the leaders suspected it to be the result of political pressure. The party leaders have threatened to hit the streets if the SEC did not order fresh counting of the votes. Collector Akhila Bihari Ota, on the other hand, expressed helplessness. He said it is for the Commission to decide on the recounting of votes. “I don’t have the power to supersede the Commission’s order,” he added.
Comments
0 comment