Congress claims 60 lakh 'bogus voters' in Madhya Pradesh, EC orders probe

The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday ordered a probe into the Congress party’s allegations of large-scale ‘anomalies’ in Madhya Pradesh voters’ list.

The move came hours after a Congress delegation approached the EC and claimed that there were at least 60 lakh bogus voters in the state, which will go to polls in November.

The poll panel formed two teams to probe the allegations and set a deadline for them to submit a report by June 7.

Earlier in the day, the Congress had accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the central Indian state of deliberately duplicating voter entries.

Madhya Pradesh State Congress Committee president Kamal Nath claimed that the BJP indulged in electoral misconduct ahead of Assembly polls in the state and included the names of 60 lakh “fake voters” in the voters’ list.

Kamalnath said that they have also submitted ‘evidence’ to the Election Commission (EC) and requested it to remove all such entries from the electoral rolls of the 230 Assembly constituencies in the state.

“We have provided evidence to the Election Commission that there are approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the voting list,” the Congress leader said in a press conference after meeting the commission.

The EC teams will visit the Narela, Bhojpur, Seoni-Malwa and Hoshangabad assembly seats to ascertain how the discrepancies occurred.

(With inputs from agencies)