Cong alleges 16 lakh voters added in 2 months before 2023 polls

Time of India

5 hours ago

Bhopal: The Congress on Tuesday continued its attack on the ruling BJP and the EC, alleging irregularities in the voter rolls of 27 constituencies in the 2023 assembly elections in the state.
LOP Umang Singhar alleged bungling of 16 lakh votes in the assembly seats of Sevra, Gwalior (South), Surkhi, Mungaoli, Chhattarpur, Gunnour, Theothar, Chitrakoot, Maugunj, Karera, Teothar, Gurh, Dhauhani, Shahpura, Lanji, Shajapur, Haatpipaliya, Mandhata, Barwah, Alirajpur, Petlawad, Dharampuri, Depalpur, Indore – 5, Sailana, and Jawad.
Addressing a press conference, Singhar claimed Congress candidates lost these seats by narrow margins while voter growth in these constituencies far exceeded the margin of defeat.
"In seven months, between Jan 5, 2023, to Aug 2, 2023, the voter rolls in the state increased by 4.64 lakh voters. But between Aug 2, 2023, to Oct 4, the electoral rolls increased by 16.05 lakh votes, which means nearly 26,000 voters were added every day," Singhar said.
"Did the EC inform the political parties about this huge and sudden increase in voters?" the LOP asked. Singhar claimed that a letter from the ECI dated June 9, 2023, directed the chief electoral officers (CEOs) of all states going for assembly elections that year, including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Telangana, not to publish or share additions/deletions/amendments to the voter list made between January 1 to June 30, 2023, on their websites.
The LOP argued that after Lok Sabha LOP Rahul Gandhi exposed SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of electoral rolls in Bihar and the misappropriation of votes in Karnataka during the last Parliamentary elections, the state Congress started probing the electoral rolls in the state.
"The BJP govt in Madhya Pradesh was formed with a fake mandate and the EC has a specific role in this," Singhar said. "The EC claims it maintains transparency and provides electoral rolls to the political parties.
But it is these voter lists that are bungled. Which is the voter list they provide to the party, and which is the one that is not given? Votes are increased or decreased. This is what happened in Madhya Pradesh," he claimed.
The Congress maintained that BJP candidates won these 27 seats with slim margins, ranging from 28 votes in Shajapur where Congress' Hukum Singh Karada was defeated by BJP's Arun Bhimawad. The BJP candidate polled 98,184 in his favour while Hukum Singh Karada secured 98,034 votes. Between August 2, 2023, to October 4, 2023, the number of voters increased by 6,134. Another seat is Dharampuri where Congress candidate Panchilal Medha was defeated by BJP's Kalu Singh Thakur by a margin of 356 votes.
Between Aug and Oct 2023, an addition of 7,649 voters was made.
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