Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress on Sunday launched a major attack against the ruling BJP government accusing it of “electoral misconduct" by including the names of 60 lakh "fake voters" in the electoral roll. The opposition party urged the Election Commission (EC) to remove these names from the lists of 230 Assembly constituencies.
After meeting a Congress delegation, the Election Commission on Sunday ordered a probe into the allegations of large-scale discrepancies in the voters' list of Madhya Pradesh. The poll panel has formed two teams to probe the charges, which will submit a report by June 7.
The Congress delegation led by Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath met EC officials on Sunday and alleged that the BJP government in the state had included the names of 60 lakh fake voters in the electoral roll.
Some of these 60 lakh 'voters' have the same name and photograph and are enrolled in different booths while some even have same names and same booths.
The Congress released a list of these names on Sunday.
"We have given proof to the EC that the voters' list of Madhya Pradesh is fraudulent. Sixty lakh fake voters have been enlisted in it. We have conducted our own enquiry in 100 constituencies.
"We have given proof to the EC as regards how one voter has been enlisted in different constituencies with the same name, address and father's name. This cannot be any mistake, it has been done deliberately by the present Madhya Pradesh government," Nath told reporters after meeting the EC officials.
The Congress leaders also requested the EC for a special monitoring mechanism to remove all the "multiple" and "demographically similar" entries and urged the poll panel to inform all the national political parties on a weekly basis about the status of identification of such voters at least at the district level.
The EC teams will visit the Narela, Bhojpur, Seoni-Malwa and Hoshangabad assembly seats to ascertain how the discrepancies occurred. After reaching the state on Monday, the teams would also fix responsibility for multiple and fake entries, EC said.
Demanding strict action against the returning officers for their alleged involvement in coming up with such "fraudulent" electoral rolls, the Congress leaders also said the EC should not deploy them on poll duty in the future.
"The officers, who produce the second corrected list, should also give an affidavit or a certificate, along with the correct list," Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said.
The leaders also pointed out that a 40-per cent rise in the number of voters in the state, as against a 24-per cent rise in the population, was "inconceivable and incalculable" and requested the EC to look into the matter.
(With inputs from PTI)
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