Maharashtra polls: BJP indulged in bogus voting in Aurangabad East seat, alleges AIMIM leader Jaleel

Imtiaz Jaleel. Pic/X

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidate Imtiaz Jaleel on Thursday alleged bogus votes were cast in Aurangabad East seat during Maharashtra Assembly election 2024 held a day earlier, reported the PTI.

Imtiaz Jaleel showed a couple of videos to the press and sought action from poll authorities.

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Polls to the 288-member Maharashtra assembly were held on Wednesday, while votes will be counted on Saturday.

Imtiaz Jaleel is pitted against BJP's Atul Save in the constituency, which is part of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in Maharashtra.

"The BJP indulged in bogus voting and also distributed money. If the CCTV of Jawaharnagar police station is checked, it will reveal how many Muslim women went to the party's office that day," he alleged in a press conference, as per the PTI.

The second video is from Bharatnagar area and people from there informed him that bogus voting was being facilitated by the BJP, Jaleel further claimed.

"Some persons told me a woman who had come to vote had no identity documents. She was asked to leave by police when I was about to approach her," the former Lok Sabha MP claimed.

An offence was registered against Imitaz Jaleel and some others at Pundalik Nagar police station for unauthorised assembly at a polling booth located in Nehru Vidyalaya in the constituency, an official said.

Meanwhile, the final turnout in Maharashtra assembly polls was 66.05 per cent as per EVM votes, up from 61.1 per cent in 2019, Election Commission officials said on Thursday, according to the PTI.

The polling percentage for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll was 67.81 per cent.

Polls to the 288-member state assembly were held on Wednesday, while votes will be counted on Saturday.

"The official figures for each assembly constituency will depend on the count of postal ballots reported. The 66 per cent turnout figure refers specifically to the votes cast on electronic voting machines," the chief electoral officer said in a statement.

The increase, excluding postal ballots, highlighted the Election Commission's efforts to engage a broader electorate, the statement added.

Kolhapur led with 76.63 per cent, followed by 75.26 per cent in Gadchiroli, which has some Left Wing Extremism affected pockets, while the lowest was in Mumbai island city at 52.07 per cent and 55.95 per cent in the metropolis' suburban district.

More than 68,000 citizens aged over 85 and 12,000 individuals with disabilities cast their votes through home voting.

"Additionally, 36,000 voters from essential services used postal voting. A total of 466,823 postal ballots were issued to voters on election duty, and around 16,000 Electronically Transmittable Postal Ballots (ETPB) were accepted for service voters," it said, the news agency reported.

(with PTI inputs)