By IANS,
Raipur : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in Chhattisgarh were in for a surprise when they realised that their party office in Raipur district (urban) had been mistakenly declared a polling centre for the forthcoming elections.
The BJP district office is based in Kirorimal Dharmshala and is located under the Raipur city (west) seat. And according to election officials, about 250 voters are listed for polling in the Kirorimal Dharmshala booth.
The party office bearers were indeed taken aback to know that their office had become a polling booth for the Nov 20 elections.
“I recently came to know that the district BJP office is now a polling booth, I have registered a written protest with the concerned election officials,” state Industry Minister Rajesh Munat, who is the ruling BJP’s candidate for the seat, told IANS.
“The Dharmshala in Janwahar Nagar area houses the BJP office and also housed the office of the erstwhile Jan Sangh since 1952. Besides, it has the offices of various affiliates such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh,” Munat added.
He said that he would have his election campaign office in the same building.
Officials at the district election office have begun the process to shift the polling booth from the office and find out how a party office was declared a polling centre in the first place.
Chhattisgarh’s 39 seats go to polls Nov 14 and the remaining 51 on Nov 20. The state Election Commission has set up 20,952 polling stations in the state where 15,207,734 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.