Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections, the Congress complained to the Election Commission of India that more than 18 lakh “duplicate” voters are currently registered across the state.
In a press conference held in Gandhinagar Saturday, CH Chavda, chief whip of Congress said, “Today, a delegation of Gujarat Congress leaders met the Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat and submitted an application. Recently, in the span of less than eight months, drafts of electoral rolls were published for Gujarat which had several discrepancies. Since assembly elections are approaching, an electoral roll correction drive is going to be launched again all over the state. The intent of such a drive is to ensure that no voter is left behind from the electoral process. However, what’s equally important is to ensure that no voter is registered twice.”
An independent survey by the Congress has revealed the presence of 18-20 lakh duplicate voters in the state, Chavda added.
“After the electoral roll draft was published last month, our party’s election department conducted a parallel survey with the help of block level assistants and we have found some shocking results,” he said.
In the constituencies of Mehsana, over 11,000 voters were found to be registered twice. Similarly, in Gandhinagar North constituency over 5,000 voters are registered twice. “Duplicate voters have been found in a single family or neighbourhood. These duplicate voters have been registered for several years and have been voting twice in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Their names have not been rectified even after the 2017 Assembly polls. We estimate that there are 18-20 lakh duplicate voters registered across the state. We demand that a fresh electoral roll list be prepared by identifying these 18-20 lakh voters and strict action be taken against officials who conducted this faulty drive,” added Chavda.