Have right to check IDs of voters without facemasks, defends BJP's Madhavi Latha
Madhavi Latha, who is facing widespread condemnation for allegedly checking the identities of Muslim women voters at a polling station, said as a candidate she has the right to check IDs of voters without facemasks
The BJP's candidate for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, Madhavi Latha, who is facing widespread condemnation for allegedly checking the identities of Muslim women voters at a polling station, has said in her defence that candidates have the right to check IDs of voters without facemasks.
Moreover, she had received information that a minor girl had been caught casting her vote.
Latha told ANI that they had got information that the presiding officer caught a minor girl casting her vote. Further, she added that FIRs can be filed against her but not on others.
“My FIR started from 'Ram Baan'. I am getting FIRs in the form of medals," she pointed out.
Candidate has no right to check voters
The BJP leader was on Monday (May 13) caught on video asking burqa-clad women voters to reveal their faces for identification purposes. The authorities filed an FIR against her at Malakpet police station.
No candidate has the right to check the identity of the candidates, said a district election officer. However, Latha thinks differently.
Media reports quoted her as saying that as a candidate, she has 'the right to check the IDs of voters without the facemasks'. According to Latha, all she did was humbly request them for their ID cards.
"I am not a man but a woman and with a lot of humbleness, I only requested them - can I please see and verify with the ID cards? If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, that means they are scared," she said.
This is not the first time that an FIR has been filed against her. Last month, a video of Latha showing her pretending to draw and fire an arrow near a mosque was criticised. Later, she denied that she was aiming at the mosque but issued a public apology for hurting religious sentiments.
Integrity of electoral process
Latha is the BJP Lok Sabha candidate in the Hyderabad constituency pitted against AIMM chief Asauddin Owaisi and BRS's Gaddam Srinivas Yadav. In an attempt to defend her action, the BJP leader who finds herself in the dock, said she was just trying to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
In her view, nearly 90 per cent of the polling booths are compromised. Morever, she claimed that the women police officers at the booth were not doing their job.
Incidentally, this is the first time the BJP has fielded a woman candidate in the constituency. Hyderabad is one of the key constituencies that is being keenly watched in this 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Telangana.
The incumbent Congress is fighting the Opposition BRS, and the BJP, in this election in Telangana, which has 525 Lok Sabha candidates.
