Citing anomalies in Kota voter list, Cong demands EC probe

Levelling charges of anomalies in the voter list of many assembly constituencies, the Congress party on Monday demanded from the State Election Commission to probe the matter.

Addressing a press conference in Kota, Pradesh Congress Congress general secretary Pankaj Mehta claimed that his party has found bogus and duplicate names in the voter list of Kota South, Kota North and Ladpura assembly constituencies.

He said there were four types of anomalies in the voter list. “Around 906 voter names have been found to be duplicated in three assembly constituencies of Kota district including Kota North, Kota South and Ladpura, in which the names of voters, their father/husband name, age and house address are similar,” he said showing the voter list last updated in January this year.

Citing an example, Mehta said that the name of a voter, Ankit Kumar, 19, son of Gopal Lal, with residence address Panditji ka Makan, Indira Gandhi Nagar, exists on booth number 161 in the voter list of Ladpura constituency with two serial numbers, 316 and 317, and two Voter Id numbers, SVS/1717404 and SVS/1879741.

“Names, age and father name of two voters can be a coincidence, but their address is also same, which smells foul play in the voter lists,” he alleged.

Mehta said that there are 13,812 voters in the three constituencies, who share same name, father name and age and around 1,35,150 voters who share same name and father name. “There are also 1,351 voters with duplicate voter Ids in these three assembly constituencies,” he said and showed some documented names in the support.

Pankaj, the Congress candidate who lost the last assembly election from Kota South, alleged that the names of bogus voters have been added in the voter list on the pressure of some influential leaders of a rival political party, which should be investigated.

“We have submitted a memorandum to the District Election Officer of Kota today (Monday) which was addressed to the State Election Officer for probe and correction of the voter lists,” he said. “If State Election office will not take action on our complaint, the Congress party will go to court,” he said.

Kota district collector Gaurav Goyal, who is also the district election officer, said, “Addition, deletion and upgradation of the electoral rolls is a continuous process and Election Commission conducts special summary revision of the electoral rolls, which is commencing from tomorrow (Tuesday), in which revision of the electoral rolls are done and draft roll is sent to all the political parties.”

“We have received complaint from Congress party on which probe would be done and effective action would be taken, if complaint is verified,” he said.

First Published: Jul 30, 2018 22:17 IST