Congress alleges irregularities in Madhya Pradesh voter list, approaches Election Commission

The Congress on Sunday alleged irregularities in the voter list in Madhya Pradesh and said there are approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered, according to reports. Congress chief for Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath told ANI that the party has provided evidence for approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the voting list. “We have provided evidence to the Election Commission that there are approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the voting list. These names have been deliberately registered in the list. This is not administrative negligence, but administrative misuse,” Kamal Nath was quoted as saying in the report. Citing figures, Nath asked, “How is it possible that the population only increased by 24 percent but, the number of voters increased by 40 percent.”

The party has requested the Election Commission to inquire into the irregularities and discrepancies and take strict and prompt action against the erring officials. The party has also sought the removal of all duplicate entries in the electoral rolls of 230 Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh and to conduct free and fair elections. Speaking at a press conference, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia blamed the BJP-led government in the state for the irregularities. “We found these irregularities during the Mungaoli and Kolaras bypolls in the state, where names of voters were being repeated. We reviewed 101 constituencies in the state where we found 24,65,000 fake voters. Meanwhile, in 91 other constituencies, we found 27 lakh such voters who had names, address and pictures on multiple polling booths,” Scindia said, according to The Indian Express. Congress had alleged “ massive discrepancies” in the voter list ahead of the two Assembly bypolls in Madhya Pradesh and accused the state’s BJP government of “conspiring to murder democracy”. With inputs from agencies