The Himachal Pradesh Congress on Monday filed a complaint with the State Election Commission (SEC) over alleged dumping of ballot papers related to the recent state Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) elections in garbage. The principal Opposition party demanded action against erring government officials in this matter.

The complaint was lodged by HP Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore in which he raised the issue of ballot papers of Zila Parishad polls, which were recovered from garbage near Govt Senior Secondary School (GSSS) Dharampur in Solan district.

The GSSS Dharampur was the counting centre for Dharampur block of Solan district in the recently- held PRIs elections.

Rathore said a bundle of 25 stamped ballot papers, two sealed envelopes and an account sheet of ballot papers relating to the recent Zila Parishad polls were found dumped along with the garbage of a counting centre at GSSS Dharampur on 13 February.

“These 25 ballot papers as per our knowledge were polled in favour of a candidate who was contesting from Darwa Ward in Zila Parishad elections. Even the ballot papers did not clearly reflect the particulars of ward/polling station to whom they were sent and more than 5 ballot papers didn’t even mention the ward/ polling station particulars,” he added.

Rathore said that as per the Model Code of Conduct for elections, the ballot papers were supposed to be kept in record but the same had been found abandoned in a lonely place, which was a gross irregularity on the part of election conducting agencies.

He said that the Congress had maintained that the ruling BJP was allegedly trying “undemocratic and illegal ways” by misusing the government agencies to win PRIs polls and “this is just one example of our claims”.

He urged the SEC to take serious note of the issue and said a total of the votes polled and counted should be once again checked and tallied so that the truth comes out.

He also demanded a prompt probe and necessary action against the guilty officials.

Both the Congress and the BJP in HP had claimed their victory in the PRIs polls in over 70 per cent seats, with the former claiming misuse of government machinery by the ruling party to ensure victory of candidates supported by it.