Madhya Pradesh: Employees on election duty could not cast their vote; Congress files complaint to Election Commission

Congress candidate from Powai and Mukesh Nayak has filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India regarding employees not voting. The voting for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls was held on November 17 in a single phase and counting of votes will be held on December 3.

Bhopal: Even though voting for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections has taken place, there is an uproar in the state regarding the voting of employees engaged in election duty.

Now Congress candidate from Powai Mukesh Nayak has filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding employees not voting. Nayak has also been a former minister. The employee organization has also complained to the ECI in this regard.

Congress has alleged that 700 to 800 employees are not allowed to vote in every Assembly election. It said that in the 2018 elections, the difference between victory and defeat in about 10 Assembly seats was less than 1,000 votes.

The Congress leaders, including Mukesh Nayak, on Friday lodged a complaint about the employees engaged in election duty not casting their votes.

Mukesh Nayak in his complaint claimed that 800 employees were not allowed to vote in the Powai Assembly constituency. "Everyone knows that the employees are angry with the government, hence as a well thought out strategy, the employees were not allowed to vote. 500 conductors and over 300 guest teachers were suddenly put on duty in the Powai assembly constituency," Nayak further claimed.

Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Bhupendra Gupta alleged that postal ballot papers could not be sent from the respective districts by the stipulated date, due to which "thousands of employees could not cast their votes".

Meanwhile, the employee organizations have written a letter to the ECI expressing their strong displeasure over the employees not casting their votes. According to Jitendra Singh, Provincial President of the Madhya Pradesh Officer Employees Federation, the role of employees is going to be decisive in this election.

However, according to officials, those employees, who had three days to vote and who could not exercise their franchise, will no longer get a chance to vote.

In the last election, 10 seats were won by a small margin. There are many districts in the state where over 4,000 votes were cast through postal ballot. In the 2018 elections, the victory-defeat margin in more than 10 assembly seats was less than 1,000. Such assemblies include Gwalior South, Rajnagar, Damoh, Kolaras, Jabalpur North, Biaora and Rajpur.

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