Punjab Polls: Hoshiarpur villagers vote for wrong candidates

Chandigarh, Mar 6: Nearly 156 villagers of Hoshiarpur have been found to have cast their votes for the wrong constituency and candidates in the Punjab assembly elections.

Due to the district election officials' mistake, the voters had cast the votes for the wrong candidates and constituency in the parliamentary elections of 2009 as well.

A complaint was filed to the Election Commission and it has been found that villagers in Koundla have been casting their votes for a neighbouring constituency. (Read More: Punjab Assembly election 2012)

Talking to journalists, Kusumjit Sidhu, Chief Electoral Officer said, "The village was mistakenly clubbed by district election officials with the adjoining village and polling station of Bassi Chaura."

Sidhu claimed that it would be a problem if votes for the winning candidates is about the same as the number of votes cast by Koundla villagers. "In that case there would be a re-election petition," he added.

"It is amazing that the mistake never came to light in the past four years and the villagers cast votes wrongly in the parliamentary elections in 2009 as well. Neither the presiding officer, nor the villagers from neighbouring constituency ever objected or brought this to our attention," said Deepinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur.

Earlier, both villages had a common polling station in Bassi Chaura, now Koundla fell in the area of the Hoshiarpur seat while Bassi Chaura came under Chhabewal seat.

"None of the parties ever pointed this out to us before, though we have been inviting complaints. I have already brought this matter to the notice of the EC. The electoral rolls have already been notified so there is actually little that can be done at this stage," Sidhu added.

OneIndia News