Indian Man Chops Off His Finger After Voting For Wrong Candidate – Reports

07:29 GMT, 19 April 2019

In the Indian election polling process, after a voter casts his/her vote, a mark of indelible ink is put on their index fingers, colloquially known as “ink of honesty”, which prevents a voter from casting duplicate votes. The voter might have realised that his mistake could not be undone.

Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik): An Indian man Pawan Kumar, frustrated with his mistake that he had cast his vote for the wrong party, chopped off his finger, reports the news portal Timesnownews. The incident happened at Bulandshahr polling station in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

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In a shocking video, Pawan Kumar is heard saying that he had chopped off his finger because he had voted for another candidate than intended. The voter was a supporter of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a party that has die-hard loyalists from the lower strata of the society. He was distraught that he had accidently pressed the wrong button on the electronic voting machine (EVM) and had voted for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The "accidental" vote went to BJP's candidate Bhola Singh when it was "intended" for Yogesh Verma from the BSP.

Kumar was rushed to a hospital, but was soon discharged after treatment.

The second phase of the seven-phase general election was held on Thursday in eleven Indian states and one union territory. The first phase of the Indian general elections began on 11 April and the last phase is scheduled to be completed by 19 May. With a population of 1.3 billion, India is the largest democracy in the world and has around 900 million citizens who are eligible to vote in the 2019 general election to elect a new government for the next five years. The election results will be announced on 23 May.