Congress alleges 45 lakh fake voters in Rajasthan electoral rolls, moves EC for probe

Claiming “abnormal growth” in the number of voters in Rajasthan, which is going to polls later this year, in recent years, the Congress party on Tuesday called on Election Commission officials and demanded removal of fake entries from the voter list after a thorough probe.

The party has alleged that there are around 42 lakh duplicate entries in the published electoral rolls for Rajasthan. It alleged an “abnormal” growth in the number of voters over the last five years, maintaining that the integrity of the voter list has been meddled with.

A party delegation including the party's state chief Sachin Pilot, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, CP Joshi and Vivek Tankha met Election Commission officials on Tuesday and gave a written representation. According to their memorandum, the growth in the number of voters is disproportionate to the growth in the state’s population. Maintaining that a scrutiny of electoral rolls revealed that there has been around a three per cent increase in the number of voters every year in the last five years, it stated that the growth in voters is improbable in the normal course.

Soon after their meeting Ashok Gehlot said: “If electoral rolls are not authentic, what would be the fate of democracy. The issue is too serious to be ignored and Election Commission must take a swift action.”

Gehlot further said: “similar complaints have been reported from Madhya Pradesh and other poll bound states. In our country such people have come to power who can go to any extent to stay in power.”

Demanding a thorough probe, Sachin Pilot said: “In the past four years since 2014, the number of voters has gone up to 70 lakh. We have urged Election Commission to probe 45 lakh new entries to the electoral rolls. They are meddling with the electoral lists in an organised fashion.”

Pilot further alleged that in hundreds of cases, the newly registered voters share the same residential address. “Even though the Election Commission officials has assured to take action, we want complete their probe within a specified time frame and act without any further delay.”

Previously, the Congress had accused Madhya Pradesh government of electoral misconduct and requested Election Commission authorities to remove 60 lakh fake voters from electoral rolls of the 230 Assembly constituencies in the state.