Karnataka election 2018: Muslim woman cries after being told to take off burqa at polling booth

A Muslim woman who was standing in the queue at polling booth 185 on Saturday refused to remove Burqah for identification during voting in Belagavi, Karnataka. The woman later argued with election officials and started crying.

This isn't the first time, earlier a similar incident took place where a woman was being forced to take off her burqa in public at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's rally.

The woman, who identified herself as Saira, later said the women constables on duty asked her to remove the black burqa, the outer robe worn by women in some Islamic traditions, which she did.

She said she was a BJP worker and had come to the rally from her village wearing her "traditional dress".

Meanwhile, people of Karnataka are all ready to vote on May 12 to choose the government which would be there in power in the state for the next five years. The tenure of the current Karnataka Legislative Assembly will expire on May 28. Out of the 224 constituencies (however, polling is being held for 222 seats in the 224-seat Assembly as the Election Commission deferred polling in RR Nagar due to alleged voter bribery and in Jayanagara following the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA BN Vijaykumar), 173 are reserved for the general category, 36 for the scheduled caste and 15 for the scheduled tribe. All electronic voting machines will be linked to VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail).