The ongoing civic polls in the state of Uttar Pradesh isn’t lacking for drama. The polls which are being considered as a test of popularity of Yogi Adityanath’s government, saw allegations surfacing about rigged EVMs during the first phase voting which took place on Wednesday. Voting in next two phases would be held on 26th and 29th November.
Of course, EVM rigging seems to have become a common allegation plank by the opposition which includes, AAP supremo Kejriwal spreading lies in order to desperately prove EVM tampering and low IQ journalists, vile politicians managing to generate a EVM controversy out of a simple joke.
Now another angle seems to have been added to the civic polls if certain reports [1][2] are to be believed. As per them, the BJP has asked the Election Commission to deploy women cops, in order to check the identity of Burqa clad women, in the two remaining rounds of the election.
The letter in connection with this demand has been sent to the State Election Commission in Lucknow by a BJP delegation which includes BJP state vice-president JPS Rathore and BJP’s election commission communication head Akhilesh Kumar Avasthi.
As per Rathore, such demand has been made to ensure a transparent election process and eliminate false voting. The party has also clarified that verification would only be required in those cases where the party cadre suspects foul play.
The opposition though has taken it up as an opportunity to attack the BJP. The Congress has termed the demand as a “sheer insult of women in general and minority women in particular” and the Samajwadi Party has alleged that the BJP only thinks of divisive politics and issues.
Such an alleged demand comes after the Election Commission issued a Manual on polling stations in 2016, where it laid out the ways in which its staff can verify the identity of burqa clad women, while maintaining their privacy, dignity and decency. This manual though didn’t mention anything about the on duty cops being part of the process.