No postal ballots found in Badami Hotel: K'taka Chief Electoral Officer

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 15 (ANI): Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjeev Kumar on Monday dismissed reports of over 1,000 postal ballot covers being found at a hotel in Karnataka's Badami town, saying nothing but only two pages of ballot usage instructions were found here.

"It has been clarified by the deputy commissioner and Bagalkot district election officer that on the spot only 2 pages of instructions were found regarding how to exercise postal ballots and no postal ballot as such were found," Kumar told media.

The statement came after a Congress delegation on late Monday night met Kumar demanding action against the parties concerned in connection with the recovery of postal ballots from a hotel in Badami.

After the meeting, Congress said, "The EC told us that they did not find any postal ballots in the hotel. However, they have registered a case and investigation is going on."

The delegation also demanded all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail ( VVPATs) to be displayed to the EC officials at the counting table.

"The commission has issued a circular stating that only one machine in random has to be tallied with VVPAT. We have demanded to open all machine as well as VVPAT and tally both. Karnataka Election Commission has sought permission from Central Election Commission in this regard," said a member of the Congress delegation.

In a similar incident, the Income Tax (IT) Department conducted raids at a resort in Badami on May 8, where the Congress leaders had been lodging for campaigning purposes.

Some Congress leaders were reportedly present during the course of the raid at Krishna Heritage Resort.

Badami is one of the two constituencies where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has contested in the Karnataka elections. The counting for the same is scheduled to take place today. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI