BJP's Badaun candidate asks people to cast fake votes | Photo Credit: ANI

New Delhi: A video, which may leave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) red-faced, shows party’s Badaun candidate Sanghmitra Maurya asking people to cast fake votes if actual voters are absent on polling day.

In the video, which has gone viral on media, the BJP candidate while addressing an election meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun can be seen asking her supporters and public gathering to cast votes of those not present on polling days.

Amid laughter and applause, she further said that it is common to cast vote on behalf of a voter who is not present during polling.

"Not a single vote should go in vain and if some are absent, then it is common everywhere that fake vote is cast... if you get a chance, do take advantage of it... do not do it, but if you get a chance... try to take the real voters to cast their votes but in case... then something can be done in a hidden manner," Maurya was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Maurya, however, said that the video that has gone viral on social media is cropped and edited, while asserting that she would never encourage anyone to do fake work.

Meanwhile, District Magistrate Dinesh Kumar Singh said that he was not aware of the matter but would look into it.

Maurya, who is the daughter of Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya, had earlier courted controversy by saying that she would become a goon if anyone tries to bully the people of Badaun

The Badaun Lok Sabha constituency will go to polls in the third phase of the ongoing elections on April 23.