National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has alleged that the Congress button is not functional in several booths in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
Poonch falls in the Jammu Lok Sabha constituency. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Jammu elected BJP’s Jugal Kishore.
Omar Abdullah took to Twitter, sharing a video from a local news site that talks of EVM malfunctioning in several places in the Poonch district.
In the video, a presiding officer from the Shahpur polling booth can be heard saying that there was a delay in polling due to a button on the EVM not functioning.
“There was a delay in polling, due to a problem — a button on the EVM is not working. We have informed the district administration,” said the EC official.
He said that the deputy commissioner has also been informed about the malfunctioning EVM.
While not naming the Congress explicitly, the poll official said that button number 4 that belongs to the hand symbol (symbol of Congress) is not working.
The reason for the malfunctioning buttons is not known yet.
Locals from the region alleged that the problem is not limited to one polling booth. They said the Congress button is not working in several polling booths in the Poonch and Surankote districts and hence the problem can not be attributed to a technical glitch.
The Shahpur presiding officer said that the EVM was functional when it was issued from the EC office.
The Poonch DC has now issued a statement on the matter, saying that not only the Congress button but the BJP button is also not working on these EVM machines.
Voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections began on April 11, with two seats from Jammu and Kashmir — Baramulla and Jammu.
