Repoll in Manipur on Feb 4, Punjab on Feb 2

The Election Commission today ordered repoll in 34 polling stations of 11 assembly seats in Manipur on February four and in one booth in Punjab on February two.

The fresh poll will now be held between 7 am and 3 pm in the two states, the Election Commission said.

Issuing fresh orders, the Commission declared the earlier polling held in these booths on January 28 and January 30 in Manipur and Punjab respectively, as null and void.

In Punjab, the repoll was ordered only in one polling booth in Amritsar (East) assembly constituency, where the polling officer failed to delete the mock poll data in the EVM before starting polling on Janaury 30.

In Manipur, repoll has been ordered in certain polling booths of 11 assembly constituencies of Chinsai (ST), Tamei (ST), Tamenglong (ST), Nungba (ST), Mao (ST), Tadubi (ST), Tipaimukh, Thanlon, Henglep, Chandel and Tengnoupal.

Polling had been countermanded in certain polling booths in Manipur due to sporadic incidents of violence and damage to EVMs during the January 28 polls in the state.

Manipur, which has a 17.5-lakh-strong electorate, recorded a total poll percentage of around 80 per cent. The polling was marred by militant violence that claimed seven lives, including those of security personnel and an ultra.

On the polling day, a man posing as a voter had entered a polling station in an interior area in Chandel assembly constituency at around 12:30 pm and started firing indiscriminately, killing a CRPF man, three polling persons and two voters on-the-spot, before he was gunned down.

There were also reports from six other places in the state where mobs had damaged Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and, in another incident, miscreants had snatched an EVM.