NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Saturday gave a clean chit to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over his presence inside the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) enclosure of Phoola polling station in Amethi, stating that he had only inspected defective machines in the voting compartment and left the polling station before polling began with a new set of EVMs.
According to Commission sources, however, since poll conduct rules require a candidate to take permission from the presiding officer before entering the voting compartment to inspect even a faulty EVM - something which, according to the inquiry report sent to the EC, was not done - the presiding officer of the concerned polling station may be held responsible for failing to prevent Rahul Gandhi from accessing the voting compartment. A decision on whether to initiate action against the presiding officer is likely to be taken soon.
Acting almost 80 hours after Rahul was photographed inside the voting compartment, the EC on Saturday, based on the report of the Amethi district election officer, the version of one photographer, polling agents of Congress and other parties as well as results of a further enquiry conducted by additional chief electoral officers of UP Alok Tiwari and Mr K Vijayendra Pandian, concluded that "no case of violation is made out against Rahul Gandhi".
According to the report submitted by Tiwari and Pandian, both IAS officers from the office of UP chief electoral officer, since Gandhi left the polling stations before the polling began, "he did not violate the secrecy of ballot and also did not hinder the polling process in any way". However, it added that "it is possible to infer that neither Gandhi sought permission to inspect the voting compartment nor was he stopped by anyone from doing so".
The EC's final decision clearing Rahul was uploaded on its website hours after CEC V S Sampath declared in a TV interview that the Congress vice-president had done no wrong as he was in the voting compartment only to inspect malfunctioning EVMs.
The further inquiry ordered by UP CEO saw the two officers deputed by him speaking to the concerned returning officer, additional returning officer, sector magistrate, micro observer, polling party members, polling agents of the political parties and media persons. According to the findings, one of the photographers said Rahul had gone to inspect the voting compartment on learning that the EVM there was not working. A newspaper later reported that polling with the new EVMs started at 10.40 am.
Tiloi SDM said he was asked to proceed to Phoola for some EVM problem. On reaching there, he found that Rahul had just left. The SDM then helped with replacement of the faulty EVM. According to micro observer Kailash Prasad Srivastava, polling at Phoola polling station began with the new EVM at 10.35 am.
Sector magistrate Mohammed said he came to know of the EVM snag at Phoola around 7 am, along with similar problems in two other polling stations. He reached Phoola only around 10 am, citing reasons like indisposition, traffic problems and need to collect additional EVMs from the tehsil office. Then he went to the other two polling stations and came back later to collect the old EVMs.
Presiding officer Sadhuram of Phoola polling station said actual polling started at 10.35 am with the new EVM. He reiterated that Rahul left the polling station by 10.15 am after inspecting the old, defective EVM.
The polling officers said Rahul visited the Phoola polling station at around 10-10.15 am and inspected the faulty EVM placed in the voting compartment. Polling began later around 10.30 am.
The Congress polling agent Ashok Kumar Shukla said he was away from the polling station when Rahul visited. He claimed the person in the picture seen next to Rahul is his son, who was also the reliever for him. The polling agents of AAP and BSP confirmed that actual polling began around 10.30 am after Rahul left.
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