Auto Crushes Cup Plate: Sribhumi Voting Stopped as Candidate Finds Wrong Symbol on Ballot

The panchayat election began and was immediately hit by controversy when a candidate and her supporters noticed a mismatch in the election symbol printed on the ballot paper. This led to a halt in voting at a polling station in Ward Number 7 of Medal Sharif Nagar Gaon Panchayat, under Sribhumi, South Karimganj constituency.

Voting had just started when polling in the Sribhumi centre came to a stop. The issue arose after it was found that the symbol assigned to candidate Jaheda Begam Nurani was incorrect. Instead of her designated cup plate symbol, the ballot paper showed an auto rickshaw symbol next to her name.

Supporters of Nurani, who had come to cast their votes, noticed the error and raised the alarm. They said that all campaigning was done using the cup plate symbol, and this sudden change caused confusion among voters.

“We did our campaign with Cup Plate as our symbol, and the ballot now has Auto Rickshaw. This mismatch is going to create a hindrance, as many of our voters were confused. Now we are hoping to pursue this issue legally. And today’s vote in this station is halted,” said one of Nurani’s supporters.

Nurani’s team are looking at a legal solution to this error, and for now, voting in the concerned polling station has been officially halted.

This is the first panchayat election in Assam after the recent delimitation, making it a significant political moment. With temperatures rising across the region, voters are expected to turn up and cast their votes. However, incidents like this raise concerns about the fairness and management of the polling process.