‘Non-eligible voters may have been added’: Oppn on net rise in electoral roll

J&K’S FINAL ELECTORAL ROLL WAS RELEASED ON FRIDAY WITH THE NET ADDITION OF 772,872 NAMES

JAMMU: The Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday said they were apprehensive that “non-eligible” people may have been added as voters in the region’s final electoral roll and they were in the process of going through the entire list.

The final electoral roll for J&K was released on Friday with the net addition of around 772,872 names. The final electoral roll has a total of 8,359,771 electors — 4,291,687 men, 4,067,900 women, and 184 transgender people. The draft roll — which is the voter list used by the poll panel in the 2014 assembly election — of around 7 million voters was published in September, after which election authorities started a special summary revision (SSR) drive to add names.

“We will see from where they added 7.72 lakh (772,000) new voters and who are they. If they are J&K residents, we don’t have any problem but certainly we won’t allow non-locals and who are not in the population register of J&K to be part of the list,” People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration spokesperson and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader MY Tarigami said.

The Congress echoed a similar view. “Our apprehension is that some non-eligible voters have been added from outside the Union territory,” J&K Congress chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said on Friday.

The BJP defended the net addition to the electoral roll and said the Election Commission (EC) carried out a transparent process. “When special summary revision of electoral rolls started, they (Opposition)accused the BJP of influencing EC to change the demography by adding 2,500,000 new voters. A completely transparent exercise was conducted by election officials, including door-todoor visit and proper verification of documents, ” former deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Kavinder Gupta said.

National Conference spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq they were studying the details of those who were added to the electoral roll.

“How long will the people of J&K be deprived of a representative, responsive government?... the EC should come out and talk about how soon will they hold elections here,” he said.