Man held in UP after video clip shows him voting 8 times for candidate

Lucknow, May 20 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested a young voter in connection with a viral video doing rounds on social media, which showed him casting multiple votes in favour of a BJP candidate at a polling booth.

The accused, identified as one Rajan Singh, was arrested late on Sunday after several leaders of the opposition parties, including Congress and Samajwadi Party, shared the video of the incident on X.

In the two-minute-long video, the voter can be seen voting for a BJP candidate, Mukesh Rajput, on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at least eight times.

Rajput is a BJP candidate from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Following the revelation, an FIR was filed at the Naya Gaon police station based on a complaint by the Assistant Returning Officer, Prateet Tripathi.

The case has been registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant laws, including IPC Section 171F (offence related to elections), IPC Section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), Sections 128, 132, and 136 of the Representation of the People's Act (related to maintaining the secrecy of voting, fraud at elections, and other election offences) and others.

Even the Election Commission took cognisance of the matter and has directed concerned authorities to take prompt and effective action.

"Cognisance of the circulating video has been taken. Concerned District Election Officer has been directed to take prompt and effective action," Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said.

The poll panel has also directed authorities to suspend and institute disciplinary proceedings against all officials present at the polling booth when the incident took place.

The crackdown came soon after the Congress and Samajwadi Party shared the video of the incident on social media platform X and sought action from the Election Commission (EC).

"Dear Election Commission, do you see this? One person is voting eight times. It is time to wake up," Congress wrote on X.

Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav also shared the video and sought action from the EC.