Vishal Dadlani raised concerns after sharing a video showing the ink on his finger fading soon after voting in the BMC elections. The Maharashtra State Election Commission clarified that removing ink is punishable and does not allow a voter to cast a second vote
Vishal Dadlani
Singer Vishal Dadlani took to his Instagram handle to share a video showing the ink on his finger fading conveniently after he cast his vote. Many citizens flagged that marker pens were allegedly being used instead of indelible ink at several polling booths. The ink is meant to mark that a citizen has voted and generally prevents a person from casting their vote again. While indelible ink usually takes several days to disappear, several voters on Thursday claimed that the ink rubbed off quite easily.
Vishal Dadlani on indelible ink issue
On Thursday night, Vishal Dadlani shared a video of his finger where the ink was barely visible. He said in the video that he had not even attempted to remove the ink and mentioned that he regularly uses sanitiser after shaking hands with people. “This is definitely not indelible ink,” he asserted in the video.
Additionally, he captioned the post, “Can confirm, this was definitely not indelible ink. Happy to make an official statement if needed.”
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Earlier on Thursday morning, after casting his vote, Dadlani had also expressed disappointment over the low “public presence” at the polling booth during the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Speaking to the media outside the polling station, Dadlani said it was “shameful” to see such low voter turnout and added that he had stopped “asking people to vote” because of the apathy.
“I’ve stopped asking people to vote. What I’m seeing here is that there’s hardly any public presence. There are more officials inside; it’s so shameful. Every Indian should feel pain seeing this. If we don’t take care of our country, if we don’t take responsibility for it, then what’s happening will continue to happen,” he said.
Talking about the importance of elections and democracy, he added, “Hopefully, whoever wins will hold the elections on time. This is very important for the country, for democracy. But given the state of our city in the last few days, the hope is that things will improve.”
EC on ink issue
After citizens and opposition parties raised concerns over the use of permanent markers, the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) clarified on Thursday that attempting to remove the ink applied on a voter’s finger to create confusion or to vote again is a punishable offence. Officials warned that strict legal action would be taken against anyone found attempting to vote a second time after removing the ink.
The SEC stated that even if a voter removes the ink from their finger, they cannot vote again, as clear safeguards are already in place. After a vote is cast, an official record is maintained to ensure that the same person cannot vote twice. Simply removing the ink does not alter this record, the commission said.
The Election Commission has also instructed all election officials to remain alert and vigilant at polling stations to prevent any such attempts, reissuing guidelines to ensure smooth and fair polling.
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