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Voting Round 1: Mehbooba Mufti Alleges People Being 'Coerced' To Vote For BJP In Jammu

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted a video showing voters in Jammu raising anti-BJP slogans after they were allegedly “roughed up” by BSF jawans for not voting for the party.
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The National Conference and the PDP on Thursday alleged that armed forces “coerced” people to vote for the BJP and that EVMs malfunctioned in some places with the Congress button not working in Jammu’s Poonch area.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti tweeted a video showing voters in Jammu raising anti-BJP slogans after they were allegedly “roughed up” by BSF jawans for not voting for the saffron party.

“A voter at polling booth in Jammu was manhandled by the BSF because he refused to cast his vote for BJP. Using armed forces at polling stations to coerce people to vote for the BJP shows their desperation & hunger to usurp power by hook or crook,” she said in her tweet.

In Jammu and Baramulla constituencies there were protests over defective EVMs in some areas, officials told PTI.

National Conference chief Omar Abdullah tweeted a video of people saying the Congress button on EVMs was not working.

Former minister and senior Congress leader Shabir Khan told reporters in Rajouri that the defective EVMs had been sent to remote and rural areas of Rajouri and Poonch and people held protests. But nothing had been done to repair the machines, he alleged.

Congress candidate from Jammu, Raman Bhalla, who cast his vote in Jammu, alleged large scale EVM malfunction in Poonch and Mendhar belt of the constituency.

Poonch’s district election officer said that while there had been problem with EVMs at certain polling stations, they had been replaced. “There was an issue with Congress button in Shahpur, our staff replaced the machine. At another polling station BJP button wasn’t working, we changed that also,” ANI quoted him as saying.

(With PTI inputs)

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.