New Delhi, April 19
The Election Commission today decided to send an additional Special Observer to Rae Bareli Parliamentary constituency, where Congress president Sonia Gandhi is contesting, after her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met the poll panel and expressed apprehensions of electoral malpractices during voting in the area.
The Commission also ordered videography of polling stations in sensitive areas following Priyanka’s complaint, EC sources said.
She met Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy and Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami and submitted a memorandum alleging the presence of criminal elements in the constituency and expressing fear of rigging.
The Commission which met soon after decided to take cognizance of her complaint and decided to take the additional measures in view of Rae Bareli being a key constituency.
Emerging from the brief meeting with the poll panel, Priyanka told reporters that she had also submitted a list of sensitive booths in Rae Bareli, where elections would be held on April 26.
There was chaos outside the Commission headquarters when Priyanka came out of the meeting forcing her to leave without formally addressing the Press people who literally mobbed her. As the shutter-happy cameramen thronged her amidst scribes jostling for an earful, a more than willing Priyanka changed her mind and left in a jiffy.
The memorandum alleged that the sitting Samajwadi Party MLA from Rae Bareli, Akhilesh Singh and his brother Ashok Singh, who is contesting on SP’s ticket for the Lok Sabha were intimidating the Congress workers in the constituency.
