 "Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP's Madhavi Latha asks Muslim women to remove burqa for ID check, case filed")
synopsis
Kompella Madhavi Latha, BJP's firebrand candidate from Hyderabad, is set to face a police case after a video showed her asking burqa-clad Muslim women at a polling booth to reveal their faces so that she can match them with the photographs on their voter ID cards.
As the fourth round of the Lok Sabha elections began, Madhavi Latha, a BJP candidate from Hyderabad, went to a voting station in her area and verified Muslim women's voter IDs by removing their burqas. Latha went to polling booth 122 in Azampur, constituency.
In the video, the BJP candidate is seen requesting Muslim ladies inside the booth to remove their Burkhas and identify themselves while also inspecting their voter identification cards.
Speaking about the footage, the BJP leader stated that she had merely asked the women to verify their identities, and that there was nothing wrong with it.
"I'm a candidate. According to the law, candidates have the right to verify ID cards without facemasks. I am not a guy, but a woman, and I have merely asked with humility: might I kindly examine and verify the ID cards? If someone wants to make a big deal out of it, it means they are scared," she explained.
Earlier in the day, Madhavi Latha had alleged discrepancies in the voter list in her constituency. She is up against a formidable candidate -- four-time MP from Hyderabad and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
A case has been registered against BJP's candidate Latha after a video clip of her checking the voter ID cards of Muslim women during her visit to a polling booth went viral.
The case has been registered under sections 171C, 186, 505(1)(c) of IPC and Section 132 of the Representation of the People Act.
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