Mumbai has 9 lakh bogus voters on electoral rolls, claims Nirupam

Sanjay Nirupam

A day after mid-day reported that the state election office has violated rules by employing class four employees to work on making electoral rolls, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam has alleged that the city has about nine lakh bogus voters registered. Nirupam produced evidence - copies of the rolls of various constituencies in which serious discrepancies were found. He said these rolls would facilitate bogus voters to cast their votes multiple times, and alleged that it was the work of a well-oiled mafia that worked in tandem with the officials and political parties.

The discrepancies
According to the documents, the irregularities were found in Magathane and Dindoshi Assembly constituencies. Some show different names for different persons, different addresses for the same persons, and different booth numbers for the same persons. In some cases, the pictures of the voters are same but other details vary. In other cases, the pictures don't match the details. In an alarming find, a voter in one constituency is seen given 13 names, 13 different ages and 13 different addresses. The picture of the voter is the same. In another case, one person has got 11 different names, 11 different ages, and 11 different addresses and booths in the same Assembly segments. Similar irregularities are found in other segments as well.

'Very few genuine voters'
"We found only 182 genuine voters in 638 voter IDs in Magathane's roll, while the number of genuine voters in Dindoshi was 290 out of 552 in one of the rolls," said Nirupam. He said the Congress party estimated there are 15,000-20,000 bogus voters in each assembly segment (36 in the city), and 1.15-1.50 lakh bogus voters in each Lok Sabha constituency (six in the city). "There is a mafia operating in Mumbai which works for the benefit of some political parties. A fraud of this order cannot take place without the support of the Collector's office. The voters are only present on paper. Mumbai should be protected from these voters in the upcoming polls," he said, adding that some 20,000 bogus voters have been identified and deleted in Anushakti Nagar, Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar and Chandivali.

Nirupam to write to EC
Nirupam pointed out that no specific house numbers were mentioned on the voter Ids, further raising questions about the honesty in the process. He also suggested that sincerity can be ensured in the process by delivering voter IDs at the voter's doorstep, which is not the current method being implemented by the Election Commission. The Mumbai Congress Unit Chief will write to the EC, requesting it to postpone the electoral roll out date from January 31 to a further date, since it would be impossible to delete such a huge number of fake voters by then. Deputy chief election officer Shirish Mohod told mid-day that he will address the complaints raised by Nirupam.

'Shame on the government'
Referring to mid-day's story about the appointment of class four employees to make electoral rolls in the city (Is EC votering down the electoral roll, on Wednesday), Nirupam said he empathised with the employees, but blamed the government for forcing them into the work. "It is shameful that graduates work as class four employees for the government, which has promised better jobs to educated people. I know what these graduates might be feeling. I empathise with them and I wish them better jobs in future."

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