BJP’s Delhi unit on Wednesday demanded “proper verification” of women voters wearing burqas or face masks by female officials during polling in the general election in the Capital on May 25.
A delegation of the party met with the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and handed him a memorandum on the issue, saying that the step would “prevent anti-social and anti-democratic elements from rigging the election” in the seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats.
The delegation, consisting of BJP MLAs Ajay Mahawar and Mohan Singh Bisht, State secretary Kishan Sharma, and lawyer Neeraj Gupta, asked the CEO to verify and cross-check the identities of burqa-clad voters in view of “larger public interest”, especially in those constituencies “where the number of burqa-wearing women voters is high”.
“A large number of burqa-clad women visit polling booths for voting. Hence, their identity needs to be verified through appropriate government-mandated identity cards allowed for casting votes to prevent bogus voting,” the memorandum read.
The Election Commission of India’s handbook for presiding officers of the election also details steps to be followed by them to verify an elector’s identity, it added.
The party’s demand comes amid a recent controversy over BJP candidate for Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat Madhavi Latha being booked by election authorities for allegedly making burqa-clad voters show their faces for verification.
