Late night drama: Voter slips seized in Bengaluru; BJP, Congress trade charges

BENGALURU: In a late night drama in Bengaluru, the city police and election commission officials raided a place in the Chikpet area and allegedly found a batch of hand-held printers and voter slips relating to Bengaluru Central

Lok Sabha

constituency on Monday night. The raid happened post 8.30pm and became public much later.


Just minutes after the news about the said raid became public, the BJP and the Congress were locked in a

battle

of words.

Officials found several voter slips allegedly during a raid on Prabhat Complex on Kempe Gowda Road and sources said that they seized voter slips which were being printed by people aligned with Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad, while Arshad said nothing illegal has been done.

BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad who is also the district Electoral officer, visited Upparpet police station and examined the seized voter slips.

He told TOI, that voter slips and other materials have been seized and are being verified.

At 10.27pm, the BJP state unit tweeted: "Congress Exposed: Youth Cong Nation Secretary Ibrahim Khaleelulla has been arrested after being caught printing fake Voter ID cards. 18 people involved in printing fake Voter ID cards have been arrested, Bengaluru Central candidate @ArshadRizwan is behind this racket."

Arshad, rubbishing the accusations, told TOI: "The election commission has already clarified that these were only voter slips. Voter information is in

public domain

and it is the right of the candidates or any group to provide voter slips to promote voting, the BJP too is doing this. No Congress leader has been arrested and no voter ID was being printed. The election commission officials were part of the search and they can confirm these were voter slips-I'll be filing a defamation case against the BJP," Arshad told TOI.

In his tweet, Arshad said that the BJP was spreading lies.

"Sensing defeat in Bengaluru Central, BJP is peddling lies in a desperate attempt to malign my image. People's blessings are with me & I am winning handsomely. If these accusations are proven true or even if one fake ID card is found, I'll quit politics," he tweeted.

He also asked the Election Commission to immediately issue a clarification. "I can say with conviction that nothing wrong has been done," he told TOI.