A delegation from the Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Wednesday, urging for thorough verification of women voters wearing ‘burqa’ or face masks during the May 25 polls.
This comes in the backdrop of a recent controversy over BJP candidate Madhavi Latha from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, who faced scrutiny from election authorities for allegedly requiring ‘burqa’ clad voters to reveal their faces for verification.
The delegation said that such verification, conducted by female officials, is essential to prevent “anti-social and anti-democratic elements” from potentially rigging the election across seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.
Members of the delegation, including BJP MLAs Ajay Mahawar and Mohan Singh Bisht, state secretary Kishan Sharma, and lawyer Neeraj Gupta, handed over a memorandum to the Delhi CEO outlining their request.
“In accordance with the ECI’s rules, we request that you deploy adequate female polling officers and female security personnel at every polling booth to verify and cross-check the identities of burqa-clad voters.”
This step is also requested in view of the larger public interest, especially in such Parliamentary constituencies where the number of ‘burqa-clad’ women voters is high, it said.
“A large number of ‘burqa-clad’ women visit polling booths for voting. Hence their identity needs to be verified through appropriate government-mandated identity cards allowed for casting votes to prevent bogus voting,” it said.
The memorandum also referenced the EC’s handbook for presiding officers, which outlines the procedures for verifying electors’ identities during polling.