Delhi Verdict: Opposition Shifts Focus from EVM to Electoral Roll
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a press conference at Constitution Club Image credit INC India
Rahul Raises Electoral Roll ‘Manipulation’ Ahead of Delhi Verdict
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 8: A day ahead of the Delhi election verdict, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi raised the issues of the alleged manipulation of the electoral roll by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Unlike the Haryana verdict, the Congress is now focusing on the alleged electoral roll manipulation than the EVMs.
The Congress sought a digital copy of the electoral roll for Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.
The Aam Adami Party (AAP) also has been alleging electoral roll manipulation in Delhi. The AAP set off for the Delhi campaign by complaining that a large number of new voters were added in many Assembly seats.
“There were at least 45 lakh voters in Maharashtra Assembly elections who were added to the electoral roll. This is a mass of a floating voters. They will shift from Maharashtra to Delhi and Bihar,” Sanjay Rout of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) alleged while addressing a press conference at the Constitution Club on Friday.
The Election Commission has trashed all such allegations in the past. But the Opposition appears to have shifted the target from the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to the electoral roll.
“The sanctity of electoral rolls is the foundation of India’s electoral democracy,” Gandhi quoted BR Ambedkar while launching a fresh attack on the Election Commission before the announcement of the Delhi Assembly elections.
The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra) MP Supriya Sule stressed that her party stood with the AAP convenor on the issue of the electoral roll in the national capital. She was also addressing the press conference with Gandhi.
“The onus is on the Election Commission. It has to explain, how almost a voters’ population of Himachal Pradesh was added to the electoral roll of Maharashtra between the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections,” said Gandhi.
The Congress leader cited the data of the National Family Health Survey to make his argument that there were more voters in Maharashtra than the adult population of the state. He, however, didn’t accept that the Family Health Survey data could have been based on the 2011 Census. India is yet to conduct the 2021 decadienal Census.
The Opposition shift from the EVM to the electoral roll is now evident. Gandhi said that the next course for the Opposition will be to approach the judiciary.
A senior Congress leader said that the party will need a certified centralised copy of the electoral roll from the EC before approaching the judiciary. “The political parties are given a very decentralised electoral roll. We want the EC to give a centralised electoral roll with the photo, address, name and other details of the voters,” said Gandhi.
Join the WhatsApp Channel of The Raisina Hills
Follow on Google News https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMNK2vwsw39HWAw?hl=en-IN&gl=IN&ceid=IN%3Aen
About The Author
