Election Commission orders re-poll at three booths in Agra teachers' Council seat on Monday

The Election Commission has ordered fresh voting at three polling stations in the Agra Division Teachers’ constituency of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council after declaring Friday’s poll there void.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa announced the re-poll in a press release on Saturday night. It will be held on Monday, 26 October, from 8 am to 4 pm at polling station 20 in the tehsil campus at Kheragarh, station 21 in the Kshetra Panchayat office at Saiyan, and station 26 in the Kshetra Panchayat office at Fatehabad.

Voting at the three stations on 23 October was declared void under Section 58A(2)(a) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The release did not describe what had gone wrong. The Commission has told the Divisional Commissioner of Agra to “conduct an immediate inquiry and submit a report to the Election Commission of India by October 25.”

Anyone whose conduct led to the re-poll will be kept away from Monday’s process, the release said, and accountability will be fixed for those responsible, including police and polling staff. This time voters will have indelible ink put on the right index finger.

Graduates and teachers voted on Friday for 11 Council seats across the state, in a contest that had already drawn complaints from the opposition about errors in the electoral rolls. Counting will begin only after Monday’s re-poll is over and the Commission gives permission. Before the re-poll was ordered, counting had been scheduled for 27 October.