EC ‘complicit’ in voter list ‘manipulation’, accuses Cong

NEW DELHI, March 3: The Congress on Monday accused the Election Commission of being “complicit” in voter list “manipulation” and asserted that the party was actively working to seek a remedy through legal, political and legislative means.
A group of senior Congress leaders questioned the Election Commission’s (EC) silence on multiple voters having the same identification number and said the party would not let this issue fade due to the grave danger it posed to the country’s electoral democracy.
“This is a grave danger to the very idea of India as an electoral democracy. This transcends political parties and politics. Babasaheb Ambedkar fought for the setting up of an independent Election Commission to precisely resist this urge of executive interference in elections. The Congress will not let this issue fade away and is actively working on seeking remedy through legal, political, legislative and any other means,” the Congress’ Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) said in a statement.
The group includes Ajay Maken, Digvijaya Singh, Abhishek Singhvi, Paveen Chakravarty, Pawan Khera, Gurdeep Singh Sappal, Nitin Raut and Vamshi Chand Reddy.
Alleging that the EC was “complicit” in voter list “manipulation”, the group claimed some startling developments on the issue had surfaced.
“The same voter ID number is being used for several voters, both from the same constituency in the same state as well as from other states. This is utterly shocking. A unique voter ID for every Indian voter is the fundamental requirement and premise of a clean voter list. Multiple voters having the same voter ID number is as bizarre as multiple vehicles bearing the same registration number. It is unheard of in any electoral democracy,” the group claimed.
In December, they said the Congress had pointed out “huge irregularities and abnormalities” in voter lists for the assembly election in Maharashtra.
“It is both a logical and statistical absurdity that the Election Commission registered more new net voters (40 lakh) in five months between the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha elections than it did in the entire five-year period between 2019 and 2024 (32 lakh),” they had said.
This was substantiated through ground reports in some constituencies where thousands of voters were added to the rolls from just one building or brought in from other states, the leaders had said. “It was further shown that suspiciously most of these new voters enrolled seem to have voted only for the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra, thereby tilting the eventual outcome in its favour.” Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue in the House. There was also a joint press conference by constituents of Maharashtra’s opposition alliance on the matter.
The Congress leaders said in the statement, “The Election Commission’s stoic silence has only lent credence to its complicity in voter list manipulation. When confronted with proof of the same voter ID number used by multiple voters, the Election Commission initially responded claiming that a voter ID number may be the same across states but it is unique to a particular state.” “Even that turned out to be a blatant lie as there are cases of the same ID number used by several voters in the same state and in the same constituency. After this was pointed out, there has been pin-drop silence,” they added.
It is elementary knowledge that a person who can legally migrate to any state must have a unique voter ID number throughout the country. The EC cannot feign ignorance or incompetence in this matter. It is a deliberate act of voter list manipulation to aid the ruling party and thwart the idea of free and fair elections, the senior Congress leaders said.
“The cover is now blown. It is clear that the ruling BJP wins or attempts to win elections by manipulating voter lists in connivance with the Election Commission. Which is why the process of appointment of the election commissioners is so critical to the Narendra Modi government that it subverted a Supreme Court ruling to have a balanced committee to appoint election commissioners,” they added. (PTI)