P.A. Sangma's camp has charged Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav with tearing his ballot paper after mistakenly voting in favour of the BJP-backed candidate in Presidential poll and demanded cancellation of the second ballot paper issued to him.
In a written complaint to the Returning Officer for the poll, Sangma's election agent Satya Pal Jain has objected to the grant of second ballot paper to Mulayam, saying he is 'not entitled to another one (ballot)' under the law.
"Mulayam Singh Yadav marked his ballot paper in favour of Sangma and then realising his mistake tore it and requested the Returning Officer to give him another ballot paper, who issued another ballot paper to him. We have objected to the tearing of first ballot paper and objected to him being given another ballot paper, which he is not entitled to," Jain said in his complaint.
The Sangma camp has sought cancellation of the second ballot paper issued to him and demanded that the first vote marked by him be considered valid.
Jain has also handed over a copy of his complaint to the election observers. He said, "Fortunately the first ballot paper has been preserved under a sealed cover with the Returning officer".
Yadav, who backed UPA Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday mistakenly cast his vote in favour of BJP-backed P.A. Sangma, but took remedial steps and requested for another ballot paper which was given to him.
The SP had backed Mukherjee after giving the ruling UPA some anxious moments as Yadav had initially teamed up with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and proposed the names of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as possible candidates for the 14th Presidential election. He later announced his support to Mukherjee.