Hyderabad: Telangana for Peace and Unity (TPU) has lodged a complaint with the chief electoral officer against BJP Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate K Madhavi Latha on Tuesday, urging strict legal action against her as well as BJP, for intimidating voters and disrupting harmony at polling booths on Monday.
The complaint which was signed by 44 social and rights activists, alleged that demanding Muslim women voters to remove their veils, verifying their identity cards and questioning their identities has adversely resulted in the voter turnout of Muslim women voters for the rest of the day on Monday.
The activists stated that Madhavi Latha justifying her actions by using her candidature, her gender and by other means, was liable be dismissed as per the Conduct of Rules, 1961 under the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 in rule 35 “identification of electors” under sub-rule (3), the presiding ofifcer or an authorised poll officer will check the identities of voters as against ID acts supplied to voters.
The activists also pointed out that as per other rules, it is either the presiding officer, or those who are specifically employed by the presiding officer to help the identification of electors, or it is only the polling agent who may challenge the identity of a person claiming to be a particular voter, in a matter set by the rule.
“Thus, there is no justification in law, whatsoever, for Madhavi Latha to intimidate voters, demand that they unveil themselves, take their identity cards or ask personal questions of their personal information to establish their identities,” the complaint read.
“It is evident from the reports that Madhavi Latha was only targeting Muslim women who were wearing their burqas and had their headscarves, which was clearly intentioned not only to disrupt the maintenance of communal harmony,” it further read.
The activists also requested the CEO to take cognisance of and inquire into other speeches and actions of Madhavi Latha, that may have disrupted communal harmony and violated both the model code of conduct and laws of the land, in the past many months.
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