The Opposition on Sunday called on the Election Commission to act after a video showing a youngster purportedly voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eight times in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency went viral. The video, shared by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on social media platform X, showed the person recording himself while allegedly casting votes several times in a series of instances. Reacting to the viral video, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Officer said the youngster has been arrested and a repoll has been recommended for the affected polling booth in Etah, Uttar Pradesh.

The video is from Khiri Pamaran village in Etah district of Uttar Pradesh. The village is part of the Aliganj Assembly constituency, which falls under the Farrukhabad parliamentary seat. Mukesh Rajput, the sitting MP, is the BJP candidate in the constituency.

“A minor youth cast his vote 8 times in favour of BJP at booth number 343, village Khiriya Pamaran, Aliganj assembly constituency of Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency. This incident definitely indicates booth capturing. Election Commission should take cognizance and appropriate action should be taken against the accused,” Samajwadi Party demanded in an X post.

The youngster seen in the video is Rajan Singh Thakur. Rajan’s father, Anil Singh Thakur, 43, told Scroll that his son is 16 years old. Anil is the gram pradhan of Khiri Pamaran and is a member of the BJP. The boy’s father claimed that the video misrepresented his son. “He [Rajan Singh Thakur] was actually voting on the machine when it was being tested in some instances,” he claimed. “In others, he was voting on behalf of mentally and physically disabled voters in the village. That part has been edited.”

Reacting to the incident, Chief Election Officer, UP, Navdeep Rinwa, provided a detailed statement on the actions taken:

“Following action has already been taken in regard to the above incident:

An FIR has been registered under sections 171-F and 419 of the IPC, sections 128, 132, and 136 of the RP Act 951 at Nayagaon police station in Etah district. The person appearing to be voting multiple times in the video has been identified as Rajan Singh, son of Anil Singh, resident of village Khiri Pamaran, and has been arrested by the police.

Instructions to suspend and institute disciplinary proceedings against all members of the polling party have been issued.

A repoll has been recommended to the ECI at the polling station concerned.

Strict instructions to rigorously follow the procedure in regard to the identification of the voters have been issued to all District Election Officers of the remaining phases in UP.”

Following action has already been taken in regard to the above incident :

1. FIR of the incident has been registered under sections 171-F & 419 of IPC, sections 128, 132 & 136 of RP Act 951 in Nayagaon police station in Etah district. The person appearing to be voting miltiple… https://t.co/MD5d4SzBnd

— CEO UP #IVote4Sure (@ceoup) May 19, 2024

Polling in the Farrukhabad seat took place in the fourth phase of the general election on May 13.