Jaswant expresses fears of bogus voting, booth capturing

With hours left for voting, ousted BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Wednesday approached the Election Commission with complaint accusing the state police of harassing his supporters early on Wednesday morning.

Jaswant also expressed fears of booth capturing and bogus voting by BJP supporters in some assembly constituencies in Barmer and demanded that booths in Bayatu and Gudamalani areas be declared hyper-sensitive.

Jaswant, who is contesting as an Independent after being denied ticket by BJP, alleged that at 2.30 am on Wednesday, police officers raided a hotel in Jasol area where his supporters Justice (Retd) Dev Narain Thanvi, Prof RP Singh and former mayor of Jodhpur, Rajendra Kumar Gehlot put up.

The trio were allegedly threatened and asked to leave Jasol area. But later the police team decided to retreat after Thanvi and Singh asked them about the law under which they were asked to leave, to which they were not able cite any rule, the complaint said.

However, Gehlot, who was in Barmer to support Singh, had to leave immediately. "This is totally unacceptable. No law permits any police officer or SDM to wake up law abiding citizens at 1 AM when they are peacefully in their rooms and to tell them to go away. We are not a totalitarian state. Rajasthan has not seceded from civilised governance," Singh said over phone.

He said the Centre and the state government must answer whether this was return of "dictatorial emergency" in Rajasthan or Barmer-Jaisalmer area.

In a separate complaint filed by his election agent, it is alleged that a BJP Rajya Sabha MP Narayan Pancharia and another leader from the party Kuldeep Dhakad are staying in Barmer to look after election related management which is a violation of Model Code of Conduct and election rules.

The two leaders are threatening and influencing voters in violation of Model Code of Conduct, he alleged.

The complaint also expressed apprehension of large scale booth capturing. Expressing fears of bogus voting in favour of BJP candidate Sonaram Choudhary, Jaswant demanded that booths in Bayatu and Gudamalani areas be declared hyper-sensitive as there are plans of large scale booth-capturing, and the state machinery is not paying any attention to these.