Agartala: More than 19,000 odd voters have applied for registering in electoral roll in the second phase summary revision, which was extended till November 12 following allegation of corruption in the process by the Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPPCC).
According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal, besides enrollment of new voters, as many as 10,000 complaints have been registered in Form-7 and 25,000 voters filled up Form-8 for correcting names and addresses in this phase.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has sent four observers to oversee the process of enrollment and hear the complaints of deprivation in summary revision and in initial investigation, a few cases were established and detailed enquiry into the cases began now, Mr Jindal pointed out.
The ECI sent the observers in the state in the face of allegation of duplication and entry of foreigners’ names in electoral roll and the state election authority had deployed separate officials to conduct enquiry.
Though the CEO considered the observers visit a routine one, the Tripura Pradesh Congress president claimed it was a follow up action after a party delegation met the full-bench of ECI and complained of forgery in the electoral roll, which prompted the commission to extend the revision process till November 14. A five-member Congress delegation, headed by AICC General Secretary Luizinho Faleiro, met the full bench of ECI early this month and urged them to take steps to prepare error-free electoral rolls while seeking its intervention to hold an election in the Marxist-ruled Tripura much like the one conducted in West Bengal.
The extension of summary revision of electoral rolls has deferred the date of its final publication and it will be made on January 12 instead of January 5. The Assembly election in the state is slated early next year. (UNI)