Cong veteran JP Agarwal alleges discrepancies in counting, poll officials rule out foul play

Congress veteran JP Agarwal, who contested from Delhi's Chandni Chowk constituency, Thursday alleged that EVM strong rooms were opened in the absence of his party's counting agents, a charge denied by Delhi's Chief Electoral Office.

Agarwal had approached the election officials with a formal complaint, who claimed that neither Agarwal nor his polling agents had reached on time when the strong rooms were opened.

"Strong rooms of Shakur Basti, Tri Nagar, Shalimar Bagh, Wazirpur, Aadarsh Nagar, Sadar Bazar and Model Town were opened without our presence by a second team which was not informed to us. We register strong objections," Agarwal alleged in his complaint letter submitted to the returning officer of the constituency.

He also alleged that his son Mudit Agarwal, who is also his election agent, was accompanying the other team and had got the seal of Matia Mahal opened.

"In Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency, second strong room was found to be broken. When we went to Ballimaran assembly strongroom with the election observer, the room was already open and the seal was opened not even in the presence of election observer," he further alleged.

Agarwal, who is pitted against BJP's Harsh Vardhan, claimed "malafide intentions" were behind this and urged the returning officer to stop the counting process immediately.

Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, Ranbir Singh said the complaint was enquired into and the allegations were found to be untrue.

"After receiving the complaint we got it enquired. The time for opening of the EVM strongrooms was 7 AM and the all the candidates had been informed about it. Some candidates including Agarwal did not reach on time and the EVM strongrooms were opened in the presence of other candidates and their polling agents".

"The entire proceedings were videographed and there were no discrepancies found," Singh told PTI.

On the voting day, Agarwal's wife, daughter and niece had also alleged that there were discrepancies in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) as the wrong bulb had lit up when they were casting their vote.

Re-polling was conducted by the Election Commission at one of the polling booths in Chandni Chowk which said the presiding officer in the booth had forgotten to delete the 'mock votes' before conducting the actual polls on May 12.