Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar LalElections for the Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Teachers’s MLC constituency was cancelled on Thursday after the Election Commission declared a mistake in the ballot papers.
Stating that the photos of two independent candidates were mixed up, the EC also stated that fresh polling would be conducted on March 19.
According to reports, Adi Laxmaiah’s photo was printed against the name of UTF candidate P Manik Reddy, and vice versa, following which the latter staged a protest at Tank Bund, at the Ambedkar statue.
However, things calmed down after EC announced that there would be a re-election.
Addressing the media later in the day, Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal called it a ‘mistake’, and said that it might have happened at the Chanchalguda government printing press.
Lal also told the media that the photos were printed correctly in the first draft.
“We noticed some spelling mistakes and suggested some deletions while reading the first proof. But, surprisingly, while carrying out the corrections, the printing press officials jumbled the photos, which went unnoticed,” Lal was quoted as saying.
The error will reportedly prove to be costly, as it is expected to cost the EC another Rs 40 lakh for holding the polls again, excluding the cost of printing ballots.
