The Gujarat Police on Wednesday arrested two Bharatiya Janata Party workers for allegedly casting bogus votes and live-streaming the act on social media, The Indian Express reported.

The two men, identified as 28-year-old Vijay Bhabhor and 38-year-old Manoj Magan, were arrested from the Dahod Lok Sabha constituency in Mahisagar district.

Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, the Mahisagar superintendent of police, said that the two men had been arrested under sections of the Representation of the People Act and the Indian Penal Code “for conducting bogus voting” at polling station number 220 in Prathampura on Tuesday.

“The two are members of the BJP and Bhabhor’s father Ramesh Bhabhor is a former president of the Santrampur taluka panchayat,” Jadeja said. “The accused have been booked under IPC [Indian Penal Code] Sections 171 and 188.”

While Section 171 pertains to wearing garb or carrying a token used by a public servant with fraudulent intent, Section 188 deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant.

The Election Commission has declared polling from booth as void, reported The New Indian Express. Re-polling will take place at the booth in Prathampura from 7 am to 6 pm on May 11.

In a video that was allegedly live-streamed on Bhabhor’s Facebook account, he can be seen entering a polling booth with another man and picking up an Electronic Voting Machine multiple times. He can also be heard dismissing the election officials’ warnings.

“Give us 10 minutes, we are sitting here…it [polling] has been going on since morning,” Bhabhor can be heard saying in the video. “Only the BJP can run. The machine belongs to our father.”

He also asks others to press the “lotus” button on the Electronic Voting Machine, referring to the BJP’s election symbol. He is also seen dancing with the Electronic Voting Machine in his hands.

The video triggered a controversy after it was widely shared on social media.

Subsequently, polling agents from the Congress submitted two separate complaints to the police in connection with similar incidents of bogus voting by the two men in 25 polling stations at Gothib in Santrampur, The Indian Express reported.

A polling agent of the Congress also claimed that he was assaulted and threatened by Bhabhor and Magan.

Gujarat Chief Election Officer P Bharathi earlier told The Indian Express that the poll panel had sought a report from the returning officer in Dahod. “Once the report is available, we will be able to decide the further action regarding the polling in the affected booths,” Bharathi said.

The Election Commission also issued a showcause notice to four officers from the Prathampura polling station for “grave indifference and negligence”.

In response to the video, Congress leader Manish Doshi criticised the BJP and alleged that it was “only one example” of the many malpractices that occurred during the polling in the state on Tuesday.

“Why is the Election Commission still silent?” he asked. “They had claimed that polling would be live-streamed but was this what they meant by it? The officials of the Election Commission only did not wear the symbol of the BJP, but they sat in their chairs and worked for the BJP as well as the police.”

Polling for 25 of the 26 seats in Gujarat took place in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.

In Surat, BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared the winner on April 22 after the Congress’ Nilesh Kumbhani was disqualified by the polling officer and other candidates withdrew their nominations.

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