Watch: Poll booth ‘captured’, Arunachal voters return empty-handed

Itanagar: Several voters had to return ’empty-handed’ after they were allegedly prevented by miscreants to cast their ballots during the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.

In a video that has now surfaced on social media, some voters can be seen coming back from a poll booth in Koloriang assembly constituency under Kurung Kumey district.

While showing their hands — to ‘prove’ that their index fingers were not inked — almost all of them said that they couldn’t get to vote. “I couldn’t vote, the booth was captured. I had come all the way from Itanagar [state capital],” a woman is heard saying in front of the person who shot the video.

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“Even the polling agent was not allowed to enter the booth. They thrashed some of the people who had come to cast their votes. Many of them are badly injured,” said another local.

“Old women, too, were not spared,” said a youth, adding: “There has to be some action [taken by the authorities concerned].”

“Those were BJP goons. They had come with arms, shooed us away by scaring us with their weapons,” alleged a resident. “They didn’t allow the polling agents of the Congress and NPP [National People’s Party] to enter the booth,” he added.

“The miscreants were hands-in-glove with the polling officers. We demand re-polling there,” the resident added.