HYDERABAD: Madhavi Latha who is the BJP's candidate from Hyderabad courted controversy after she was seen in a video clip checking the voter ID cards during her visit to a polling booth.
In the video, the BJP candidate can be seen asking Muslim women inside the booth to remove the Burkha and identify themselves along with checking their voter identity cards.
Speaking about the video, the BJP leader told ANI that she had only requested the women to verify their identity and there was nothing wrong with this.
"I am a candidate. As per law candidate has the right to check the ID cards without the facemasks. I am not a man, I am a woman and with a lot of humbleness, I have only requested them - can I please see and verify with the ID cards? If somebody wants to make a big issue out of it, that means they are scared," she said.
Earlier in the day, Madhavi Latha had alleged discrepancies in the voter list in her constituency.
"The Police personnel seem very dull, they are not active...They are not checking anything. Senior citizen voters are coming here but their names are deleted from the list. A few of them are residents of Goshamahal but their names are in the list of Rangareddy...," the BJP leader said while speaking to ANI.
Madhavi Latha cast her vote at the Amrita Vidyalayam polling station in Hyderabad for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections and asserted that "Sabka Sath mai hi Sabka Vikas Hai."
Madhavi Latha is pitted against a formidable opponent in the form of four-time Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief, Asaduddin Owaisi, from Hyderabad Lok Sabha Constituency and BRS' Gaddam Srinivas Yadav. This is the first time that the BJP has fielded a female candidate from the Hyderabad constituency.
Asaduddin Owaisi has been the elected representative from Hyderabad since 2004. He was previously elected as an MLA twice in the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Voting for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections in 96 Parliamentary Constituencies across nine states and one Union Territory got underway today at 7:00 am.