The first day of voting for the 17th Lok Sabha election began with its share of controversy, as curious onlookers saw food packets with ‘Namo Foods’ inscribed on them being sent inside the poll booth at sector 15A in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency.
According to news reports, policemen stationed outside polling booths in Noida were reportedly distributed food packets that had the logo ‘Namo foods’ emblazoned on top of them in Hindi.
After the reports emerged, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Election Office (CEO) L Venkateshwarlu has reportedly taken cognisance of the matter. The CEO has also sought a report from the Gautam Nagar District Magistrate on the matter, as per a tweet by a News18 reporter.
Meanwhile, the official Twitter handle of SSP Noida clarified that the food packets were not from any political party, and were procured at a local level.
Appeal to all that do not trust rumours. Pls go by facts @noidapolice @dgpup @PTI_News @adgzonemeerut @igrangemeerut @ceoup @ceouptweets @Uppolice pic.twitter.com/Pi3besBOsY
— sspnoida (@sspnoida) April 11, 2019
Even as an online debate started on Twitter whether this was a violation of the model code of conduct, BR Tiwari, Addl. Chief Election Officer, told ANI that the packets came from a “very old shop” which happens to have “the same brand name”.
BR Tiwari, Addl. Chief Election Officer on reports of Namo food packets being distributed in Noida: We came to know about this from media reports. There is a very old shop, more than 10-year-old, which has this brand name. It has been highlighted in a different manner in media pic.twitter.com/J0FXBLKSXO
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 11, 2019
According to Indian election rules, the presence of any paraphernalia related to parties or candidates is barred from within 200 metres of polling booths on Election Day.
Over the course of the last few days, the election commission has been swamped with accusations of election rules violations and opposition parties have even accused it of going slow over complaints that involve the BJP.