Kirti Azad creates controversy, says Cong workers looted polling booths

Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad, who joined Congress after quitting BJP, has created a controversy by claiming that Congress workers looted polling booths for his father and him before EVMs were introduced.

Addressing a rally in Darbhanga, the cricketer-turned politician said, "In those days booths were looted, Congress workers used to loot polling booths for Nagendra ji (former Congress leader). Booths were looted for my father as well and in 1999, for me also. EVMs had not been introduced then."

Kirti's father Bhagwat Jha Azad was Bihar Chief Minister in the 1980s and Nagendra Jha, father of Bihar Congress president Madan Mohan Jha, was a minister then.

Kirti, who was with BJP for a decade, was suspended from the party in 2015 for making charges against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).

The Darbhanga MP, who joined Congress on February 18 in the presence of party chief Rahul Gandhi, made the remarks on the looting of polling booths the next day.

Latching on to Kirti's remarks, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra asked if that was the "very reason" why Rahul Gandhi wants to do away with electronic voting machines.