When right was wrong for Rajinikanth
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:20.04.2019
Superstar Rajinikanth got inked on the index finger of his right hand when he went to vote at a polling booth at Stella Maris College on Thursday. So what? It’s the wrong hand. And the authorities are not amused and have sought a report.
So how did it happen? Was the poll official who did it so starstruck when Rajinikanth came to vote that he couldn’t tell right from left? And what was the superstar thinking? How come he put his right hand forward? As a regular voter shouldn’t he have remembered that the Election Commission had said the left index finger would be the one to be marked?
“Yes, it was a mistake. The official should have applied the ink on the actor’s left index finger. The rule says if there is any problem with the left index finger, the ink could be applied on one of the other fingers of the left hand,” said Tamil Nadu’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo.
Sahoo, however, refused to say whose mistake it was. He has sought a report on the incident from the district election officer.
Rajinikanth is not new to controversy when it comes to polling. During the 2016 assembly election, the paparazzi who follow his every move videographed him voting for the candidate of a particular party. So much for secret ballots. But he really wasn’t to blame that time as it’s not as if he showed them the EVM. They just stuck their cameras in the polling booth.
This election, though, photographers were not allowed to follow celebrities into the rooms where they cast their votes. But that didn’t prevent many voters and even political activists from whipping out their cellphones — which are not allowed in polling station, a ban observed more in the breach — and jockeying for selfies everytime a celebrity (read actor) walked in to vote in polling booths across Chennai. In most cases security personnel looked on indulgently, though in some places they acted to ensure things didn’t get out of hand.
WHOSE MISTAKE IS IT ANYWAY?
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:20.04.2019
Superstar Rajinikanth got inked on the index finger of his right hand when he went to vote at a polling booth at Stella Maris College on Thursday. So what? It’s the wrong hand. And the authorities are not amused and have sought a report.
So how did it happen? Was the poll official who did it so starstruck when Rajinikanth came to vote that he couldn’t tell right from left? And what was the superstar thinking? How come he put his right hand forward? As a regular voter shouldn’t he have remembered that the Election Commission had said the left index finger would be the one to be marked?
“Yes, it was a mistake. The official should have applied the ink on the actor’s left index finger. The rule says if there is any problem with the left index finger, the ink could be applied on one of the other fingers of the left hand,” said Tamil Nadu’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo.
Sahoo, however, refused to say whose mistake it was. He has sought a report on the incident from the district election officer.
Rajinikanth is not new to controversy when it comes to polling. During the 2016 assembly election, the paparazzi who follow his every move videographed him voting for the candidate of a particular party. So much for secret ballots. But he really wasn’t to blame that time as it’s not as if he showed them the EVM. They just stuck their cameras in the polling booth.
This election, though, photographers were not allowed to follow celebrities into the rooms where they cast their votes. But that didn’t prevent many voters and even political activists from whipping out their cellphones — which are not allowed in polling station, a ban observed more in the breach — and jockeying for selfies everytime a celebrity (read actor) walked in to vote in polling booths across Chennai. In most cases security personnel looked on indulgently, though in some places they acted to ensure things didn’t get out of hand.
WHOSE MISTAKE IS IT ANYWAY?
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