As the country prepares itself for the biggest dance of democracy, there are people who have made all the arrangements to derail the democratic process. In a startling revelation, it has emerged that polling officials in Delhi and NCR are ready to facilitate bogus voting in exchange for money. Even though NCP chief Sharad Pawar termed his comments-urging supporters to vote twice-as a joke, a sting operation by Aaj Tak revealed that such an arrangement is possible and politicians can use this to buy votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Booth Level officers (BLOs), who are responsible to ensure that no fake votes are cast on the polling day, have accepted on hidden camera that they can provide fake voter ID for as low as Rs.1,000-1,500 per person.
BLOs and Assistant Electoral Returning officers in Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida and Dadri are involved in selling fake votes. Many officers also claimed that they can make multiple voter ID cards using just one photograph.
“You are late, what are you saying, we could have increased the votes in sets of 100, 200. We could have shown one person four times in one set,” said Mukesh Kumar, a BLO in Dadri area.
Some officers even went to the extent of offering a discount on the rate of per bogus votes. When AAJ TAK investigative team contacted BLO in Gurgaon election office, he offered to give a discount of Rs.100-200 per vote. “If my work is done, I can give discount of Rs.100-200 also,” he said.
Full Article: Poll officers offer fake voter IDs for Rs 1,000 : Highlights, News – India Today.