Madhavi Latha Asks Burqa-Clad Women To Lift Veil At Polling Booth; FIR Filed
As the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election is going on, the Hyderabad BJP candidate Madhavi Latha is to face a police case. On Monday, a video footage of her emerged from a polling booth where she is seen asking burqa-clad Muslim women to reveal their faces so that she can verify it with the photographs on their voter”s identity cards.
Soon after the video surfaced, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) has registered a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
#WATCH | Telangana: BJP candidate from Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, Madhavi Latha visits a polling booth in the constituency. Voting for the fourth phase of #LokSabhaElections2024 is underway. pic.twitter.com/BlsQXRn80C
— ANI (@ANI) May 13, 2024
The police will be lodging an First Information Report (FIR) against Madhavi Latha because no candidate has the right to lift someone”s veil to check their identity, District Election Officer Ronald Ross told NDTV. If there is any doubt, the candidate can ask the polling officer to check a voter”s identity, he added.
Meanwhile, Madhavi Latha responded that a candidate has the right to check Voter IDs. “I am a candidate. As per law candidate has the right to check the ID cards without the facemasks. I am not a man, I am a woman and with a lot of humbleness, I have only requested them – can I please see and verify with the ID cards. If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, that means they are scared…” she told ANI, the news agency.
The BJP candidate has also alleged mismatch in the voter”s list. She stated that the police personnel seem very dull, they are not active. “They are not checking anything. Senior citizen voters are coming here, but their names have been deleted from the list,” she added, ANI reports.
In the Lok Sabha polls, Madhavi Latha is pitted against four-time MP from Hyderabad and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. Madhavi Latha, also known as Kompella Madhavi Latha, is the first female candidate fielded by the BJP in the city.
