Shock for Congress
Chronicle Reporter, Bhopal, While engaged in preparation of elections Congress is shocked by Supreme Court.The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed two separate petitions of senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot.
They sought that the two states have a muddle in the voter list and it should be reviewed. But the Supreme Court rejected the petition.Madhya Pradesh will vote to elect a new government on November 28 and Rajasthan on December 7.
The Congress hopes to oust the ruling BJP from these two states in the forthcoming elections, seen as precursor to the Lok Sabha polls early next year.
In their petition, the Congress leaders alleged there were a large number of duplicate names appearing on the voters’ list and sought the rectification of the error to ensure “free and fair elections.”
Kamal Nath, in his plea, said that the court should direct the Election Commission to publish the voters’ lists in a “text format as per rules,” instead of the PDF format, and redress all complaints related to electoral rolls before their final publication.
The senior Congress leader has also said that court should direct the poll panel to randomly verify the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast on electronic voting machines or EVMs in 10 per cent of randomly-selected polling stations in every Assembly constituency.
Their pleas were unsuccessful. A bench comprising A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said: “we have dismissed these petitions.”
Kamal Nath has claimed in his petition that as many as 60 lakh names on the voter list in Madhya Pradesh are faked.During the hearing Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, representing the Election Commission, argued that a large number of duplicate entries from the voters’ list were already weeded out even before the issue was taken up by the Congress.
Senior Advocates and Congress leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners.Much rides on the results of the elections in the two heartland states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, seen as bellwether before next year’s general elections, in which the BJP-led NDA will seek a second term in power.
In Madhya Pradesh, BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is seeking a fourth consecutive term in office and in Rajasthan Congress is trying to wrest power from the BJP’s Vasundhara Raje Scindia-led government.