By TNM Staff
A citizens forum in Telangana has filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer against Hyderabad’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Madhavi Latha for intimidating voters at a polling booth. She was seen harassing burqa-clad Muslim women at the Azampura polling station on Monday, May 13, demanding them to reveal their faces so she can personally verify their identities against their voter ID cards.
The forum, Telangana for Peace and Unity, said that Madhavi Latha’s actions could have adversely affected the turnout of Muslim women voters, even as the Election Commission had been putting out campaigns to improve turnout. The complaint pointed out that Madhavi Latha was only targeting Muslim women, which is punishable per Section 153A(1)(b) and Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
“As has been reported widely, Madhavi Latha demanded that women wearing hijab / burqa remove their veil or headscarves, and took their identity cards to ‘verify’ their identities. In the videos, Madhavi is seen saying “this says you are 38, remove it”, “yeh kaun hai, aap kaun hai” “doosra aadhaar card hai?”, and questioning their identities,” the complaint read.
The BJP leader reportedly justified her actions by stating that she, as a candidate, had the right to check the ID cards without the facemasks. “I am not a man, I am a woman and with a lot of humbleness, I have 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,” Madhavi Latha was quoted as saying in the complaint.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here.
