Congress to move poll panel again over ‘fake’ voters in MP

BHOPAL: The Congress on Monday said it will approach the Election Commission again over its complaint regarding the presence of 60 l akh “fake names” in Madhya Pradesh’s voters’ lists, days after the poll panel rejected its charge.

“We are not satisfied with the report of the Election Commis- sion. We will approach the commission again with evidence and demand an enquiry,” state Congress president Kamal Nath said.

In a letter dated June 8, the EC had communicated to the Congress that from the evidence collected at the ground-level and the data analysed, it found that “the claim of large scale duplicate, false voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pra- desh is not correct”.

However, Kamal Nath said that his party was not satisfied with the poll panel’s response.

He added: “Our complaint was based on the voters’ lists as on January 1, 2018. Officials themselves admitted that there were irregularities and they were taking corrective measures, but now they are saying everything is alright.”

Backing Kamal Nath’s charge, state Congress campaign committee chairman and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia wondered how the Election Commission could complete an enquiry across state’s 101 assembly constituencies within six days of the party filing its complaint.

A Congress delegation led by Kamal Nath and Scindia had met Election Commission officials on June 3 and submitted a petition giving details of the alleged “bogus and fraudulent” voters in the state based on the party’s surveys.

The petition was accompanied by a presentation listing out examples of fake voters.

The party also contested that the number of voters in the state has gone up by 40% in the last five years while the state’s population had increased by just 24%.

Responding to the Congress raising doubts over the Election Commission enquiry, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, Rajneesh Agrawal, said: “If the Congress doesn’t have faith in the Election Commission it should move the Supreme Court on the issue but its leaders should not mislead people and should not look for an excuse for the party’s defeat in the assembly elections later.”