New Delhi: A video showing several people engaged in a confrontation with the police is doing the rounds on social media, with the captions saying that women in Manipur broke down Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) after they generated paper slips with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s lotus symbol, irrespective of which button they pressed.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar leader Jitendra Awhad shared the video on his official X account.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress’s X handle also posted the claim.
Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.
Investigation
While this is a recent video from Manipur, the claim is misleading. According to reports, locals destroyed the EVMs over “proxy voting” allegations.
When the viral video was divided into multiple screenshots and a Google reverse image search run on some of them, the frames matched with a 19 April NDTV video report. The report was uploaded, with the title, “Manipur News Today | EVMs Vandalised Over ‘Proxy Voting’ Allegations In Manipur”.
NDTV published its video with the description—”Locals vandalised EVM at a polling station in Manipur’s Moirang Kampu amid allegations of proxy voting”.
Similarly, an Indian Express video spoke about intimidation and booth capturing in Manipur at the time of voting 19 April.
The Hindu reported 22 April that “re-polling was successful” in some districts after numerous videos from 19 April showed armed individuals moving around polling stations in the presence of security personnel, with voters expressing concerns over “proxy voting”.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Manipur responds
The CEO reposted Awhad’s video and called it “fake news”.
He mentioned that the video showed a case of “mob violence” in a polling station in Khurai assembly segment in Imphal East. A re-poll was done in the constituency 22 April.
The CEO stated that no one has alleged or found a mismatch between the button pressed in the ballot units and the paper slips generated through VVPAT.
Legal action is being taken against the spreading of the “fake news”, he added.
FAKE NEWS: The video seen here is a case of mob violence in a Polling Station (3/21 Khurai Assembly Segment) in Imphal East and Re-poll has already been done in the said Polling Station on 22 April, 2024. No case of mismatch on the button pressed in the Ballot Unit and Paper Slip… https://t.co/sxAoQO19m8
— The CEO Manipur (@CeoManipur) April 27, 2024
FIR Against Jitendra Awhad
News agency ANI reported 27 April that a case was filed against Awhad for sharing a fake video, alleging a discrepancy between the button pressed in the ballot unit and the paper slip produced by the VVPAT.
Case registered against NCP-SCP leader Jitendra Awhad for sharing a fake video and claiming there is a mismatch between the button pressed in the Ballot Unit and Paper Slip generated through VVPAT. Case registered under 120Β/203/505(1)(2)/171-C /171-E IPC & 123/136 RP Act:… pic.twitter.com/TFZACuqfQB
— ANI (@ANI) April 27, 2024
The Quint has reached out for inputs from Manipur, and the story will be updated once the response comes.
This story was originally published by The Quint as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.