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The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday ordered an inquiry after a video of a police vehicle being used for distribution of food packets at a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Anantnag parliamentary constituency went viral.
The 28-second video shows the police gypsy being used for distribution of food packets and water bottles among the people gathered for the BJP rally in south Kashmir's Anantnag.
The rally was addressed by BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav.
Taking cognisance of the incident, police ordered an inquiry into it.
The driver of the vehicle, which police said was deployed for ferrying escort personnel of a protected person, has been attached and the gypsy has been withdrawn.
"Today a video surfaced on social media wherein one police vehicle is seen being utilised for distribution of food items in a political party rally in Anantnag.
"The vehicle in question was deployed for ferrying escort personnel of a protected person," a police spokesman said.
"The vehicle has been withdrawn from the said protected person and driver of the vehicle has been attached. An inquiry into the matter has been ordered under the rules," he said.
Meanwhile, former chief minister and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah took a dig at the state police.
'Well done @JmuKmrPolice.You have always helped the needy & this is another example. You have set aside your obligations under the election code of conduct to help a political party in need but please confine it to drinks/food. We hope you will not be as generous with bogus voting,' he wrote on Twitter.
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Oppn parties complain to EC against BJP's name under its symbol in EVMs
Opposition parties on Saturday approached the Election Commission alleging display of party name only under the BJP symbol on EVMs during a mock poll in West Bengal's Barrackpore constituency, but the poll panel has maintained that the same insignia was used for the party in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
A delegation of opposition parties comprising senior Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Ahmed Patel and Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi and Derek O'Brien met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora over the issue and demanded that either all such EVMs be removed from the remaining phases of elections or names of other parties be added too.
The EVMs display the party symbols, name of the candidates and their photographs.
"On EVMs, letters 'BJP' are visible under the party's symbol. No other party's name is there. Either remove all machines which mention BJP clearly or all other parties' name should be added in all such machines. Till then the use of these machines has to be totally stopped in the elections," Singhvi told the reporters after meeting the Chief Election Commissioner.
Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, who is also a sitting MP from Barrackpore, said this was a 'clear fraud on the people' and an attempt to 'hack the EVMs'.
He also showed purported photographs of the EVM where the party symbol of Lotus included the words BJP .
"Yesterday the commissioning of EVMs was going on in my constituency. We saw the name of BJP clearly written under its Lotus symbol. My party people pointed this out and we requested the returning officer to stop the commissioning.
"We approached the state election body also. But the CEO could not take a decision saying elections are already going on," he said.
"To our utter surprise, before the EC could hear our part of the argument, they had already given the judgment that we are carrying on with the process and there is nothing wrong," Trivedi said.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission, in a letter to the chief electoral officer of West Bengal, said that it has received a complaint regarding use of party's name in ballot and that the same symbol was used by the BJP in the 2014 elections.
"There is nothing to suggest that it reflects the name of the party," the EC letter said.
BJP's Arjun Singh is contesting from the Barrackpore constituency, while Trivedi is the candidate for Trinamool Congress.