Old Incident Of Polling Fraud In The 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly Election Going Viral Linking With The General Election 2024

Recently a post went viral on social media with the claim that there were only 90 voters at a booth in the Dima Hasao district of Assam, but 171 votes were cast in EVM. Five officers of the Election Commission were suspended too. 

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We have found the same claim on Facebook too.

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However, as we investigated, we came to know that the incident took place in the 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election and has no link with the current general election. Here’s the fact check.

Fact Check

We started our investigation by conducting a keyword search and as a result, found a report published in The Times Of India on 5 April 2021. According to the report, a booth in Halflong constituency went to the polls in the second phase on April 1, 2024. The voters’ list of the polling station had 90 names, but 171 votes were cast in the EVM. As the incident came to light, the District Election Officer suspended five poll officials from the booth, set up at 107(A) Khotlir L P School, and proposed a repoll.

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India Today also reported the same incident in April 2021.

Thus, we learn that in the 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election 171 votes were cast in a polling booth in Dima Hasao district.

But we couldn’t find any recent incident as the viral post claims.

Moving forward, we came across a tweet from the Chief Electoral Officer, Assam who clarified that the viral post is fake.

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Conclusion 

From our investigation, it is clear that the claim of irregularities in the general election in Assam’s Dima Hasao is misleading. The incident of additional voting being cast took place during the 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election and has no link with the ongoing general election.