Chandigarh, May 6 (PTI) The Haryana Congress on Wednesday alleged that they have detected 17,086 duplicate entries of 8,543 voters in Panchkula, where a municipal corporation election and other civic polls are scheduled to be held on May 10.
The allegation was made by Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was flanked by the party’s state unit chief, Rao Narender Singh, at a press conference.
“The Panchkula MC has nearly 2.8 lakh eligible voters. An analysis of the voter list by Congress volunteers in a month-long exercise has clearly revealed that, within the Panchkula Municipal Corporation, the names of 8,543 voters are registered twice in the electoral roll, resulting in a total of 17,086 duplicate entries,” Surjewala said.
This “startling truth” came to light following an independent, ward-wise cross-verification of the voter lists across the civic body’s 20 wards, he said.
Surjewala said the party had submitted a memorandum carrying “evidence” to the State Election Commission and the Returning Officer of the Panchkula MC.
“We gave a list of the 17,086 duplicate voter entries belonging to 8,543 voters across all 20 MC wards in Panchkula. They said they will investigate,” Surjewala said.
With MC polls scheduled for May 10, the Congress leaders urged the election authorities to act fast.
“Such a staggering number of duplicate entries cannot be a clerical accident. 17,086 entries do not multiply by accident. The very magnitude of the manipulation makes it impossible without the active connivance of the officials concerned,” the Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP alleged.
“It is the BJP’s model to indulge in ‘vote chori’, steal the mandate and hold the democracy hostage,” Surjewala alleged. “The roll is the foundation, and the foundation has been corrupted.” The Congress leader asserted that he stands by the evidence of fudging unearthed by the party.
“If we are wrong, then they can send both of us (him and Rao Narender) to jail,” he told reporters.
He said that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been demanding machine-readable voter lists for all elections, or at least a scannable voter list, but no step has been taken in that direction.
“It is a designed voter deletion programme. It does not look into duplicate entries,” he said.
Surjewala said the Congress demands a complete sanitisation of the electoral roll prepared for the Panchkula civic polls, with all duplicate entries removed, and published in the public domain.
An order must be issued for a time-bound and comprehensive inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the creation of these duplicate entries, he said, and called for police action for the alleged lapse.
The May 10 elections will be held to elect mayors and councillors of municipal corporations in Ambala, Panchkula and Sonipat, and presidents and ward members in Rewari, Sampla, Dharuhera, and Uklana.
The counting of votes will be held on May 13.
The main contest in the municipal elections is expected between the Congress and the ruling BJP.
At present, the BJP holds the mayoral posts in all three municipalities. PTI SUN VN VN
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