krishnan wrote:
Apparently , ECI talked about one Polling Station only where RaGa was seen inside Voting Compartment however there were two other booths including the one in this picture where RaGa was photographed inside Polling station, not inside Voting Compartment, and EVM was supposedly working. However , to make position clear , as EC has correctly told, RaGa was not at fault, to be fair to him if EVM was not working.
If EVM is working and voting is in progress then no one except the voter has right to go to Voting compartment for casting his vote.
Polling Agents of a booth for candidate represents him and observes polling process, disputes identity of voters, certifies Mock poll and proper functioning of EVM before it is used during poll. Candidate has right to visit all polling stations of his constituency , but without security cover as police is not allowed inside Polling Booth.They must remain out side the door of the Polling Booth and manage the queue if needed. Candidate can enter the booth and see the process without disturbing the polling process.
What happens when EVM is not functioning. Polling can not progress. Voters who want to cast the vote and have signed on the register and about to proceed to the voting compartment can only remain inside the Polling Booth. Others will be stopped at the door. Now a replacement EVM will be brought ( BU+CUs as the case may be) and again Mock poll is conducted and EVM is verified by Polling agents present. if candidate is present then he may also verify EVM. When Poll is not progressing due to EVM malfunction , Mock poll has to be conducted by putting Ballot Unit inside Voting Compartment and Polling agents ( candidate) are asked to press the buttons. Guidelines says that 50 times button has to be pressed of which buttons for candidates have to be pressed at least 30 times and NOTA 20 times and then tally is made for each button. Polling agents certifies the mock poll and then EVM is sealed with their signatures along with Presiding officers before Polling begins. At which time Polling agents withdraws to their designated seats.
Now if in that particular Polling station, EVM was not functioning then other processes would be ongoing regarding replacement of EVM and Polling agents or candidate could be seen in the Voting compartment.
However , if Poll was progressing then except voter no one has tight to be present inside the voting cmpt but candidate can always remain present inside the polling station without disturbing the poll process.
So not much should be made out of this except scoring brownie points and that has been achieved. However , if it could be proved that Voting was in progress then certainly a serious offense is made out.