Mathura: Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Mathura candidate Yogesh Dwivedi has been booked on the charges of breaching the secrecy of voting for clicking selfie with EVM while casting his vote during ongoing UP polls, officials said today.
ADM, Mathura, Ravindra Kumar said a complaint was filed on February 11 that Dwivedi had taken a selfie with EVM while casting his vote during first phase of polling on February 11.
He said the candidate had uploaded the picture on the social media.
Dwivedi has been booked under Section 128 in The Representation of the People Act, 1951 (maintenance of secrecy of voting), the ADM said.
Dwivedi has, however, denied all the charges against him saying he did not take any photograph during voting.
“I did not click any picture with my phone. I will answer all the questions. I will say I have not breached any law,” he said.
Curtains came down on Thursday on the hectic campaign in 69 Assembly seats spread over 12 districts that will vote in the third phase of the UP polls on February 19.
The districts are Farrukhabad, Hardoi, Kannauj, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur, Unnao, Lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, SP had won 55 of these 69 seats, while BSP, BJP and Congress secured just 6, 5 and 2 respectively. One seat went to an Independent.
A total of 826 candidates are in fray, whose fate will be decided by 2.41 crore voters, including 1.10 crore women and 1,026 belonging to third gender category.
While the maximum number of 21 candidates are in Etawah, minimum of three candidates are in Haidergarh (Barabanki).
Lucknow West and Central have 17 candidates each.
There will be 25,603 polling booths in this phase.
The next four phases of polling will be held on February 23, 27 and on March 4 and 8. Counting of votes will take place on March 11.