Maharashtra women’s panel chief performs EVM ‘pooja’ before voting

The chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW), Rupali Chakankar, allegedly performed EVM ‘pooja’ before voting at a polling station in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency on Tuesday, 7 May.

However, it was unclear what official action, if any, was taken in the matter.

Belonging to the ruling MahaYuti ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, Chakankar arrived to vote with her family members, stood in a queue at a municipal girls' school, and then entered the polling station set up there.

Though she had entered empty-handed, later she was seen with a small ‘pooja thali’ with flowers and other assortments with which she performed a brief prayer ceremony of the EVM booth, with an unidentified woman standing beside her.

Some pictures of Chakankar performing the rituals were flashed on social media drawing strong reactions from the netizens, with some even tagging the police and the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Soon afterward, the Sinhagad police station registered a case against her. Chakankar and the NCP are yet to comment on the matter.

After casting her vote, Chakankar posted a picture with her 18-year-old son Soham, who exercised his franchise as a first-time voter.

The Baramati LS seat is witnessing one of the biggest electoral battles in the state with Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra A. Pawar pitted against her ‘nanad’ Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar and a three-time sitting MP, in a fight for supremacy between the Pawar uncle-nephew duo.