Discrepancy in MP voters’ list: EC forms two panels to probe

After the Congress alleged large scale discrepancies in the voters' list in Madhya Pradesh, the Election Commission has said that it would look into the issue.

Soon after a Congress delegation approached it on the issue, the poll panel formed two teams to probe the allegations.

The teams have to submit a report by June 7. The Congress claimed there are at least 60 lakh bogus voters in the state, which will go to polls in November. The party also submitted evidence to the EC to buttress its allegation.

There are approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the state. These are not merely mistakes. The lists have been deliberately altered at the behest of BJP government in the state," Congress's Kamal Nath said.The EC teams will visit the Narela, Bhojpur, Seoni-Malwa and Hoshangabad assembly seats to ascertain how the discrepancies occurred.

After reaching the state tomorrow, the teams would also fix responsibility for multiple and fake entries, EC said.

Earlier in its memorandum to the Election Commission, the Congress has demanded strict action against the returning officer who published the list in January this year and called for a fresh list to be released ahead of the upcoming state assembly election.

Speaking at a press conference, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia blamed the BJP-led government in the state behind the irregularities in voter list. "We found these irregularities during the Mungaoli and Kolaras bypolls in the state, where names of voters were being repeated. We reviewed 101 constituencies in the state where we found 24,65,000 fake voters. Meanwhile, in 91 other constituencies, we found 27 lakh such voters who had names, address and pictures on multiple polling booths," Scindia added.