Virat Kohli To Cast Vote In Gorakhpur Bypoll? Not Really But He Is Eligible, Thanks To Goof-Up

District magistrate and chief election officer Rajeev Rautela has ordered a probe after a voter's slip issued in the name of Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli surfaced in Sahjanwa sub-division of Gorakhpur, which is going for the bypoll on Sunday.

Rautela ordered SDM Pankaj Srivastav and Tehseeldar of Sahjanwa for a probe into the matter.

Hindustan Times reported that the matter was brought to the notice of Election Commission (EC) by the DM, who told that many other irregularities were found in electoral roll.

“The issue is very serious. The SDM Sahjanwa has been asked in to submit a report in two days. Appropriate action will be taken against those found guilty,” said deputy election officer Prabhunath, the report added.

HT added that booth level officer (BLO) Sunita Chaubey was handed over a bundle of voter slip to distribute it among voters on Thursday. She was shocked to see the voter slip carrying Kohli’s picture and his name. She even tried to search a voter with the name and when she failed to find any, she handed it over to local corporator, who brought it to the notice of DM.

As per the voter slip, Kohli’s name has been registered under Sahajanwa assembly segment, with his voter number given as 822, reported News18. The electoral list carrying his pictures shows mentions his ID as RSV 2231801. The polling booth as mentioned in slip is at Primary school, Luchui, Sahjanwa, added the HT report.

Two constituencies of Uttar Pradesh -Gorakhpur and Phulpur- will go to polls on March 11, as the seats were vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively, after taking the office. March 10 is the last day for campaigning.

According to the Election Commission, there 19.61 lakh voters in Phulpur parliamentary constituency, while there are 19.49 lakh voters in Gorakhpur parliamentary.

In November last year, contrary to the state election commission's claims about the arrangements for the Municipal elections in Uttar Pradesh, EVM malfunctioning and names missing from the voters' list were reported from many parts of 25 districts. UP cabinet minister and sitting MLA from Lucknow Cantonment Rita Bahuguna Joshi and senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra's names were missing from the voters' list.