BLOs found indulging in malpractices in UP bypolls

In a shocking incident, block level officers (BLO) were found indulging in electoral malpractices in the polling for the Assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

In Rampur, three BLOs were arrested and all three are women - Seema Rathore, Tazia and Mumtaz. The three were on duty at the Hadi junior high school polling station.

They had indulged in malpractices in distributing election slips.

District Magistrate Aujaneya Kumar is interrogating the BLOs at the Kotwali.

Kumar said that 20 elections agents of independent candidate Javed had also been detained. After investigations it was found that they were actually Samajwadi Party workers.

Meanwhile, three other BLOs were also taken into custody by the sub-divisional magistrate in Aligarh. They were also found guilty of malpractices in distribution of voting slips.

They were released after questioning.

Four unauthorised polling agents from the Azad Hind College tried to enter the premises. All the four polling agents have been taken in custody.

In Ghosi Assembly segment, Sudhakar Singh, an independent candidate supported by Samajwadi Party (SP) has alleged that the administration is behind the snags in the EVMs in the constituency.

The average polling percentage for 11 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh at 1 p.m. was 28.98 per cent with Gangoh polling the highest at 41 per cent.

Lucknow Cantt polled the lowest with 16.1 per cent till 1 p.m.IANS