BJP, Congress trade charge over booth-level 'irregularities' in UP's Amethi
Amethi (UP) (PTI): A dispute involving a booth level officer and her husband at a village here during the Special Intensive Revision of voter list has triggered a political confrontation, with the BJP and Congress trading allegations of electoral malpractice and intimidation.
On Friday, BJP district unit president Sudhanshu Shukla met Amethi District Magistrate Sanjay Chauhan and submitted a memorandum, alleging that the Congress was "trying to rig the electoral process".
Shukla claimed that Congress workers were conspiring to add fictitious names to the voter list while deliberately removing genuine voters from Dalit, backward, and general categories.
"Congress has a history of crushing democracy and winning elections through fraudulent voting in Amethi," he said.
He cited alleged instances of booth capturing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections at Thauri village of Jagdishpur assembly constituency and Gurjar Tola of Gauriganj assembly constituency to support his claims. "Today, the same Congress is once again attacking the roots of democracy by manipulating the voter list," he alleged.
Shukla referred to the incident of February 4, stating that at polling booths 207 and 208 in Thengha village of Amethi tehsil, Rakesh Kumar Maurya, a Congress district secretary and his wife Subhadra -- a booth level officer (BLO) posted at a different place -- tried to intimidate staff and disrupt the revision process.
Shukla claimed that the couple fled from the spot when confronted.
This comes after a complaint lodged by Maurya with Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Ashish Singh on February 4. In his complaint, Maurya alleged that Shukla had summoned his wife, BLO Subhadra to an event in Thengha village, where she was pressured to fill out Form-7 and subjected to verbal abuse.
Maurya claimed that he was assaulted and his mobile phone was snatched when he intervened.
The Samajwadi Party has also entered the fray, with its district president Ram Udit Yadav meeting the Ameethi district magistrate on Thursday to demand an impartial investigation into the matter.
District Magistrate Sanjay Chauhan said the investigation has been handed over to the Amethi SDM. He added that legal action will be taken once the report is received.
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PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer fined for slow over rate vs CSK
Chennai (PTI): Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer was fined Rs 24 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his team’s IPL 2026 match against Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
The last season's runners-up PBKS secured their second sucessive win, defeating five-time champions Chennai Super Kings by five wickets here on Friday.
As this was Punjab Kings’ second offence of the season under Article 2.22 of the IPL Code of Conduct, which relates to minimum over-rate violations, the penalty was enhanced and Iyer was fined Rs 24 lakh, said the IPL media advisory.
"The rest of the members of the Playing XI, including the Impact Player, will be fined either INR six lakhs or 25 per cent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser," it added.
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