Election Day In UP's Village of Twins

Amit and Vipin may have raised some eyebrows when they cast their vote at a booth in Mohammadpur Umri village. They have an uncanny resemblance to each other.

Amit and Vipin are twins and Mohammadpur Umri, a small village in Uttar Pradesh near the Indian Air Force's Bamrauli base in Prayagraj, is called a 'village of twins'.

A day before the polling, PTI came across at least 10 twins. Locals say there are about 30 such pairs of twins in the village, where around 1,000 people live.

Amit says he was pulled up by security personnel when he went to a polling booth to vote in the last elections. The security personnel took him for his brother Vipin, saying he has already voted, says Amit.

Luckily, Amit says, his brother and mother were around, who explained to the BSF personnel that they are twins.

Mohammad Hassan wasn't as lucky as his brother Mohammad Rehan this election. Hassan couldn't vote as his name was missing in the voters' list.

Rehan says several scientists in the past have visited the village, taking their saliva and blood samples to understand why so many twins took birth here. But till now it is a mystery, he says.

Local residents rubbish the claims that their village is a 'haunted one'.

"The only thing we can say is that it is a blessing from Allah," 12-year-old twins Ashar and Irma's mother says.

Please click on the images to view in full screen.

IMAGE: 12-year-old twins Ashar and Imara pose for photographs in Prayagraj district. Photographs: PTI Photo

IMAGE: Vipin Kumar and Amit Kumar show their fingers marked with indelible ink after casting their vote, February 27, 2022.

IMAGE: 30-year-old twins Vipin Kumar and Amit Kumar along with twins Mohammad Rehan and Mohammad Hassan at a polling booth during the fifth phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.