Around 20 officials deputed on election duty forgot to delete the mock poll data on May 19 before the people started to cast their votes in different booths of three Himachal Pradesh constituency. Later, the officials erased actual votes to cover up their mistake.
Per a Hindustan Times report, the Election Commission is investigating the matter and will likely initiate disciplinary action against the five presiding officers and 15 polling officers.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Devesh Kumar told HT that these officials were deputed at booths in Chowk, Salvahan and Harvahni villages in Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, Kashmirpur village of Solan district in Shimla constituency and Bhager in Bilaspur district of Hamirpur constituency.
The mock poll is an exercise carried out in the presence of the polling agents of the contesting political parties one hour before the actual polling begins, in order to check if the EVMs are working properly. In the process, at least 50 test votes are cast and later deleted before the actual votes are cast by the voters.