CCTVs turned off for 45 mins: Supriya Sule expresses concern over Baramati poll incident

Mumbai: The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP on Monday shot off a complaint to the Election Commission of India raising concerns after the CCTVs monitoring the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the Baramati Lok Sabha polls and kept in a strong room, went off.

On Monday, Supriya Sule posted a short video on X which showed CCTV cameras monitoring the strong room where the EVMs were kept, not displaying any images. Sule claimed that "the CCTVs going off for 45 minutes is suspicious; when we contacted the election department officials and the administration, we didn't get a satisfactory reply. There is no technician present, and our party functionary is not allowed to survey the EVMs. This is a very serious issue and the Election Commission should take immediate cognizance and disclose why the CCTVs went off".

She also asked the EC to take action against those involved in switching off the CCTVs.



Returning Officer of Baramati, Kavita Dwivedi, told media persons that the CCTVs went off after the electrician working in the strong room disconnected a cable that led to the CCTVs, which led to the disruption.

"This was only for a short time and only the display to the television was affected, the recording continued and all data of the said period (when the CCTVs were shut) is intact and all the CCTVs are working."

Additional Chief Electoral officer, Kiran Kulkarni told ET that they have sought a report from the Returning Officer.

The opposition parties have also complained of massive amounts of money being distributed allegedly by the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and BJP in the run-up to the fourth phase.

NCP-Sharad Pawar faction leaders have put out a few videos from Ahmednagar where cash worth several lakhs has been found dumped on the road. Nilesh Lanke, the Sharad Pawar faction candidate, claimed that the money was being distributed by the BJP party functionaries.