Lok Sabha Elections 2019: The BSP supporter in Bulandshahr said he voted for the BJP by mistake.
Highlights
- BSP supporter said he accidentally pressed the wrong the button
- He said he was not forced to press on the BJP button
- He said he voted for BJP's Bhola Singh instead of BSP's Yogesh Verma
A supporter of Mayawati's party in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr chopped off his finger on Thursday after he voted for the BJP by "mistake".
Pawan Kumar, 25, said he accidentally pressed the wrong the button. "I accidentally pressed the button having lotus symbol instead of elephant. I chopped my finger for the mistake," he told news agency ANI.
Mr Kumar, who is from a village in Bulandshahr, said he voted for the BJP's sitting lawmaker Bhola Singh instead of the Bahujan Samaj Party's Yogesh Verma.
A video, widely-shared online, shows the man sitting on a chair with his index finger wrapped in bandage. When asked if he was forced to press on the BJP button, he said he wasn't.
"He was very happy that he was voting for the first time ever," Pawan Kumar's brother Kailash Chandra told AFP by phone. "But once he realised his mistake, he was so distraught that he chopped off his inked finger... Every time he saw his ink-marked finger, he felt angry," he said.
Yogesh Verma was fielded by the alliance of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
The BJP's Bhola Singh got a notice from the Election Commission after he was seen campaigning at an election booth in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr in a viral video.
Eight of 80 parliamentary constituencies in Uttar Pradesh polled on Thursday in the second phase of the staggered national election. Apart from Bulandshahr, voting was held in Aligarh, Hathras, Fatehpur Sikri, Nagina, Amroha, Mathura and Agra.
Eight seats in western Uttar Pradesh voted in the first round, on April 11.The remaining 64 seats in the state will go to polls in the next five phases of the election.
Counting of votes will take place on May 23.
(With inputs from Agencies)