Photos of two candidates get mixed up in MLC polls!

Hyderabad, March.9: In glaring mix up in the Teacher MLC elections in the Telangana State, the photographs of two candidates got exchanged in the ballot paper leading to confusion among the electorate.

There are 12 candidates in the field for the one Teacher MLC seat of R.R.- Mahbubnagar- Hyderabad districts, the polling for which was held on Thursday.

Soon after the polling commenced it was noticed by the electorate in some polling booths that the photographs of UTF candidate Manik Reddy (serial no.3 in the ballot paper) and that of Independent candidate Laxmaiah (serial no. 9) were got mixed up. The agents of the candidates raised some objection and protested demanding the polling to be stopped.

The issue brought to the notice of the State Election Commissioner Banwarlal by the both the candidates whose photos got mixed up and demand was made to postpone the elections as the mix up had occurred due to the negligence of the election commission.

Reacting to the mix up of the photographs of the two candidates, Banwarlal  pointed out that in the first proof of the ballot paper, some spelling mistakes were found and corrected though there was no mix up of the photographs.  When the second proof came, the officials verified whether the spelling mistakes were corrected or not. But surprisingly the photos of the two candidates got mixed up during printing of the ballot paper. How this error had occurred and whether there was any mischief played in this regard is being investigated, he said and added that a report was being sent to the Chief Election Commission at New Delhi and a final decision will be taken by it after due investigation..

What is intriguing is that despite the glaring mix up of the photos of two candidates, who had even demanded postponement of polling, the election process continued without any interruption.