New Delhi: Congress presidential poll candidate Shashi Tharoor has alleged irregularities in the poll process and has demanded cancellation of all the votes in Uttar Pradesh, sources told ABP News. In a letter written to Congress Central Election Authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry, election agent to Tharoor, Salman Soz alleged of “extremely serious irregularities in conduct of election in UP” and demanded that all votes from UP be deemed inavlid,” quoted by news agency ANI.
It was also alleged that unauthorised people were inside polling stations and proponents of Kharge were giving instructions to the voters.
The Tharoor camp also raised allegations that due procedure was not followed during sealing of the ballot box.
Meanwhile, the Congress election authority sources refuted Tharoor's allegations, saying that the claims were baseless. None of Tharoor's agents, who were present in Lucknow at the time of voting, raised concerns. The problem is with his Delhi agent, they said.
Tharoor's team has also raised "serious issues" in the conduct of election in Punjab and Telangana.
Soz conveyed to Mistry that what has been witnessed in Uttar Pradesh is an open challenge to the authority of "your office" as well as contempt for the orders of the Congress president and the Congress Working Committee to hold free and fair elections. "We would like to underline that we have no evidence that Mallikarjun Kharge ji was aware of how his supporters were engaging in electoral malpractice in Uttar Pradesh. We are certain that if he was aware, he would never allow what happened in Uttar Pradesh," Soz said in his letter, reported news agency PTI citing sources.