Congress To Move Gauhati HC Over Voting By Police Personnel In LS Polls

Aizawl: Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Monday said that it will move the Gauhati High Court against the Election Commission for not facilitating voting for about 1,047 police personnel who were deployed for poll duty in other states. They had failed to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha polls held on April 19 in the state, the MPCC said.

It said that the party had on May 13 written to the state chief electoral officer (CEO) asking him to take steps so that the policemen could exercise their franchise.

As per the reply of the CEO, the Election Commission is unlikely to arrange voting facilities for the policemen, who did not cast during the elections due to their deployment for the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the MPCC said.

The party said that it will file a Public Interest Litigation at the Aizawl bench of Gauhati High Court to ensure that the police personnel cast their votes before the counting of votes.

Although they were supposed to exercise their franchise at facilitation centres, no such arrangements could be made for them as they had to leave the state, before the candidates could be finalised, due to direction from higher authorities, officials said.

The state election department has claimed that it requested the Election Commission at least two times to allow the police personnel to cast their votes for the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat.

However, the Central poll panel rejected the requests, the CEO office in the state said.

On Saturday, the People's Conference (PC) party also wrote to the Election Commission principal secretary S B Joshi, urging the poll panel to allow 1,047 policemen from Mizoram, to cast their votes.

The party blamed the authorities for failing to arrange the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for the police personnel.

It said that 1,047 votes will have a meaningful impact on the poll results in a small state like Mizoram.