Congress demands repoll in Samaguri, writes to Election Commission

Guwahati, Nov. 17: The Congress on Saturday moved the Election Commission of India, seeking re-poll in some polling booths of Samaguri where it said incidents of "booth capturing", "rigging" and "voter intimidation" took place.

Bypoll for the Samaguri Assembly constituency was held on November 13, along with four other seats in the State. The BJP's Diplu Ranjan Sarmah was locked in a battle with the Congress's Tanzil Hussain in Samaguri, which had been a bastion of the Congress and previously held since 2001 by Tanzil's father and current Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri Rakibul Hussain.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia said that the local administration utterly failed to take any action and there was no level-playing field for conduct of the elections.

The sanctity of the elections in Samaguri across booths was compromised to the detriment of fairness and transparency of the electoral process, Saikia said.

He alleged that on polling day, various outsiders were allowed to enter multiple booths with a clear agenda of booth capturing and rigging in favour of the BJP candidate, and also cited instances of violation of the model code of conduct.

The Congress also sought an investigation into instances of booth capturing and other electoral violations, besides re-polling in the relevant booths.

Tanzil Hussain has also filed an official complaint with the ECI seeking re-poll in 33 booths of the constituency. Samaguri had seen unprecedented pre-poll violence during the campaign period and on polling day.

- By Staff Reporter