‘Namo Foods’ distributed to cops deployed at polling booth in Noida, Election Commission seeks report

With Lok Sabha Elections 2019 underway, anything related - even distantly - to 'NaMo' is bound to raise eyebrows of Election Commission and opposition parties likewise. After all the controversy around NaMo TV, the latest thing in the news is ‘Namo foods’. Several food packets, with ‘Namo Foods’ emblazoned on them in Hindi, were distributed among security personnel deployed at a polling booth in Gautam Buddha Nagar on Thursday.

The news spread like a wildfire and Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Venkateshwar Lu has now asked for a report on the incident from the District Magistrate.

According to reports, some policemen on election duty at a polling booth in Sector 15A were served meals in packets labelled ‘Namo Foods’. The food packets were brought in the boot of a hatchback car at around 9.30 am, officials said.

However, they clarified that those were procured from Namo Food Shop and not from any political party.

"Misinformation is being spread that some policemen have been distributed food from a political party. This is absolutely wrong. At a local level, some food packets were procured from Namo Food Shop and not from any political party," Senior Superintendent of Police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Vaibhav Krishna said.

"Some people are spreading wrong and politically motivated rumour. There is no official order to procure food from any particular food outlet," he said.

The cop also appealed to people not to pay heed to rumours being spread via social media. A news channel, however, said that the food outlet had denied having supplied the food packets.

The polling began at 7 am Thursday in Noida, which falls under Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency, is voting as part of the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections today.

A total of 22.97 lakh voters are eligible to cast their vote in the seat which has 13 candidates, including two Independents are in the fray.