The Hindu : National : EVMs manipulated at Barh, allege Dalits

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Wednesday, Apr 21, 2004

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National

EVMs manipulated at Barh, allege Dalits

By Our Staff Correspondent

BARH, APRIL 20. Allegations of manipulation of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were made today at this constituency, the native place of the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar.

At Kalyanbigha, native village of Mr. Kumar, where the Kurmis are dominant, polling came to an end by mid-day in the two polling booths: In one, 532 of the 884 had cast their votes and in the other, 500 out of 697 had used the EVMs.

Observers said that it was simply not possible to register about 70 percent of voting in less than five hours under normal circumstances. The EVM beeps for 14 to 20 seconds each time it is used to cast a vote.

Dalits in the area alleged that the two booths had been "captured." A voter said that this had been happening for generations.

In contrast, at the nearby Nandabigha, only 205 out of the 897 voters had exercised their franchise. In fact, polling was suspended after the Dalits protested against attempts by the anti-social elements to have their say here.

Several people questioned the presence of outsiders here.

The presiding officer, U.S. Prasad, admitted that he had suspended polling in view of the disturbance.

At Chainpur (booth no. 181), it was alleged that those belonging to Paswan Nagar were not allowed to exercise their votes.

At Adilpur-Kurtha, the dominant group is the Yadavs. The Dalits here charged that the dominant group prevented them from casting their votes.

Complaints pertaining to deletion of names was raised in almost all the booths, leading to tension, particularly with the young voters.

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