A 2019 video from Haryana's Faridabad capturing a polling agent illegally voting in the Lok Sabha elections last year has resurfaced with claims that it is from Bihar, in the backdrop of the Bihar assembly elections that concluded last week.
The video shows a polling agent walking into a voting compartment thrice and voting on behalf of three women voters as they arrive to caste their votes.
The clip is doing the rounds with a narrative that states how a polling agent from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tried to vitiate the electoral process in Bihar.
The caption with the video reads, "BJP voting officer... pressing button before the uneducated Muslim women vote in Bihar." Click here for an archive of the video.
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BOOM also received the same video in its helpline for verification.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)'s Tejashwi Yadav on November 12 claimed discrepancy in counting, alleging that several postal ballots had been declared invalid. The Election Commission however maintained that records showed only one assembly constituency in Bihar, Hilsa, where the winning margin was less than the number of invalid postal ballots. A recount was initiated in the constituency.
The Nitish Kumar led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a majority in the 243 member Bihar Assembly in the elections that ended last week. Kumar's NDA was powered by 74 seats by the BJP. Meanwhile opposition RJD led by Tejashwi Yadav, emerged as the single largest party.
Also Read:How The NDA Beat Anti-incumbency In Bihar: 5 Key Takeaways
Fact Check
BOOM broke the video into its key frames and ran a reverse image search. We were directed to a NDTV news report, featuring the same video in its bulletin. According to the report, the video is from 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where a polling agent was caught on video illegally casting votes thrice. The incident happened at Asaoti in Faridabad Lok Sabha seat's Prithla. An excerpt from the bulletin states that the polling agent was arrested for trying to influence the voters and booth capturing.
A Quint report further stated that the man, a BJP polling agent, was accused of directing the voters to choose BJP by pressing the lotus symbol. He was identified as Giriraj Singh and was arrested on May 12.
The District Election Office in Faridabad also tweeted after the Chief Electoral Officer Haryana instructed them to take necessary actions.
The Election Commission had ordered a repolling at the booth on May 19.
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