Hyderabad BJP MP candidate Madhavi Latha booked for ‘verifying’ voter IDs of Muslim women

Hyderabad: A case has been registered in Malakpet Police Station against Hyderabad BJP MP candidate Madhavi Latha for violating the election code and verifying the voter IDs of Muslim women voters. A video clip in which she was purportedly asking burqa-clad women Muslim voters to show their faces to compare with the photo identity cards surfaced.

A case has been registered under sections 171C, 186, 505(1)(c) of IPC and Section 132 of the Representation of the People Act.

Madhavi Latha and AIMIM Asaduddin Owaisi are facing off in Hyderabad, which the latter won by a sizeable margin in the last Lok Sabha elections.

In a video which went viral, Madhavi Latha was seen cross-checking voters' IDs and checking the faces of Muslim women at a polling station. She can be seen asking a burqa-clad woman to lift her veil, which the latter does.

“I’m not a male. I’m a female. I asked the voters to show their ID cards and to remove masks just to verify. If somebody wants to make an issue out of it, it means they are scared of it,” said Madhavi speaking to a media outlet.

She also cautioned the poll officers on facial identification during the casting of votes. “Facial identification is very important. If the election officers are not checking the voters' faces, I’m going to lodge a complaint,” Madhavi was seen saying in the video.

Speaking at a polling booth, Madhavi highlighted major discrepancies in the voter list in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha Constituency.

“Narla Mallesh Yadav, a voter despite being healthy and alive has been declared dead,” said Madhavi.

Meanwhile, Advocate Afsar Jahan gave representation to chief electoral officer Vikas Raj to deploy woman police officer to verify identity of burqa clad women during voting.

This is the second time Latha has waded into controversy over minorities. On April 17, a video purportedly showed her symbolically shooting an arrow in the direction of a mosque during the Sri Rama Navami rally in Hyderabad. She later apologised and claimed that the video clip was incomplete.

Voter turnout

Telangana recorded an approximate voter turnout of 40.38 per cent till 1.30 pm on Monday as polling was underway for 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, according to an Election Commission app.

Polling which began at 7 am will end by 6 pm, barring at a few places where it will conclude two hours earlier.

Over 3.31 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in 35,356 polling stations across the state. By-poll for Secunderabad (Cantonment) was necessitated following the death of sitting BRS legislator Lasaya Nadidta in a fatal road accident in February this year.

The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4 nationwide. Telangana recorded 62 per cent voter turnout in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

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