Election Commission dismisses allegations of voter list manipulation
The Election Commission has categorically rejected the allegations leveled by the opposition that there has been widespread manipulation in the voter list in many states, including Maharashtra. Sources associated with the Commission said that only 89 appeals were filed for corrections and objections related to the voter list, which shows that the allegations of the opposition are baseless and they have no concrete evidence.
The Election Commission argues that the voter list is updated before every election. In this, the names of those who have either died, have moved from their place, or have changed their constituency are removed. Also, the names of new eligible voters are added to the list under a fair and transparent process. The Commission clarified that the process of removing duplicate or dead voters from the list is done regularly.
According to sources, 13,857,359 booth-level agents (BLAs) were deployed across the country, whose job was to monitor the voter list. Despite this, only 89 appeals were filed across Maharashtra, which proves that there was no widespread discrepancy in the voter list. Officials associated with the Commission say that if anyone suspects that the voter list is wrong, they should study the Election Act 1961, which was passed by Parliament.
The Election Commission has already clarified that duplication of EPIC numbers does not mean that the concerned voters are duplicate or fake. The Commission claims that it has sufficient data in this regard, which shows that transparency and fairness have been maintained in the voter list.
It is worth noting that during the winter session of Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of discrepancies in the voter list in the Lok Sabha. He had alleged that about 30 lakh new names were added to the voter list of Maharashtra between 2019 and 2024, which is suspicious. Elections are to be held in Bihar and other states in the coming months, so this issue is likely to be raised again by the opposition.
