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Fact Check: Video Of MP By-Polls Shared With Claim Of Election Officer Explaining How BJP Rigged Elections In Bihar
India, 17 Nov 2020 2:38 PM GMT
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A video is being shared on social media where one can see a lady being purported as a polling officer with the claim that this is how the Bihar elections were rigged & the administration was fully working in favour of NDA.
A video is being shared on social media where one can see a lady talking about how election officials acted in favour of a political party with the claim that she is as a polling officer and she is explaining how the Bihar elections were rigged & the administration was fully working in favour of NDA. This video is being shared with the context of recently concluded Bihar assembly elections which was in favour of BJP and JD(U).
Since the Bihar elections results, many images and videos are going viral on social media that claims that elections were rigged in Bihar in the favour of NDA, an alliance of BJP and JDU. The Logical Indian has debunked some of these claims earlier which can be read here, here and here.
In the same context, the video with the lady speaking to the media has gone viral with the caption, "Bihar election officer held a press conference stating clearly how they were not allowed to work by police and politicians."
The lady in the video can be seen saying, "The tags were mismatched and many of them did not have signatures. The pink-paper seals and green seals did not match. And despite all this, these people did not take any notice of it and without informing us declared the result of that round. They have taken signs from us after announcing the result of the round." The lady in the video also accuses the authority of doing partiality.
The video was also shared by Congress MLC from Bidar, Karnataka, Vijay Singh with the caption, "Listen to this polling officer. The entire electoral process is rigged. Seems this is how NDA got back to power in Bihar by rigging election. Entire democracy is in danger, high time we raise our voices against." The archive of the tweet can be seen here.
Claim:
The lady in the video is an election officer in Bihar and she is claiming that one-sided elections took place in Bihar.
Fact Check:
The Logical Indian first listened to the video carefully and found that the lady said two names - Sudarshan Gupta and Rajesh Sonkar. On searching these two names on Google, we found that both the names are of BJP leaders from Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
We called a local reporter from Madhya Pradesh who identified the lady as Rashmi Borasi, daughter of Madhya Pradesh's Congress leader Premchand Guddu.
On doing a keyword search with ' Rashmi Borasi', we found an article published by ANI on November 10, 2020. The article was published with the headline, "MP bypolls: Counting paused for an hour after Congress supporters allege mismanagement".
The article says that during the counting of Madhya Pradesh's by-polls 2020, Premchand Guddu's daughter Rashmi Borasi said, "The tags were mismatched and many of them did not have signatures. The pink-paper seals and green seals did not match. When we asked the officials about this, they said that these things happen and avoided our questions. The police are also not checking for mobile phones properly." It was the same line that the lady in the video was speaking.
Madhya Pradesh by-polls were held for 28 seats on November 3 and the results of which were declared on November 10. Sanwer constituency of Indore district also had by-polls after Tulsiram Silwat defected from Indian National Congress to BJP during the reign of Kamal Nath. There were 25 MLA's who defected from the Congress party along with Jyotiraditya Scindia resulting in by-elections in these places. In the by-poll, Tulsiram Silawat again won the election from BJP against Premchand Guddu of Congress.
According to a report by Lokmat, countings were halted for an hour after the Congress supporters alleged of mismanagement and created ruckus near the counting booth.
A video was published by The Time Of India, in which the son of Premchand Guddu, Ajit Borasi claimed that seals of EVM were broken and the authorities manhandled Congress supporters and media.
We also found the same video published on November 12, on the Twitter account of MP Congress with the caption, " Indore's Sanwer seat's condition - .
A local reporter also confirmed about the news and said that the video is from Madhya Pradesh by-poll counting date and not from Bihar and the lady in the video is Rashmi Borasi, daughter of Premchand Guddu and not an election officer. Hence the video is being shared with the false claims.
If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.
Also Read: Fact Check: Video Of 2019 Lok Sabha Elections Shared As Voter Fraud In Recent Bihar Polls
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