Etawah villages: Congress sees red in ‘exponential’ rise in number of voters

Uday Bhan also claimed that another 116 villages have between 70-80 per cent of their population registered as eligible voters, raising doubts over the figures.

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In 2010 panchayat polls, he said, similar anomaly was detected when voters exceeded total population of Chakarnagar. Then population of Chakaranagar block was 72,585 while voters registered were 73,655.

“It may be the case this time also but the district administration is not revealing the details. We are compiling the data from our own resources and as per the complaints from our workers,” Uday Bhan added.

Etawah has total 471 villages with a population of 12.15 lakhs.

The Congress leader has also questioned the composition of the population in certain villages, based on which it is decided whether the pradhan seat will be reserved or not.

In 2001, there were 22 villages, which did not have a single voter from general category. This number has now risen to 51, implying that these villages will not have pradhan from general category. Also in 2001, there was only one village which did not have scheduled caste (SC) population. The number has now risen to seven.

“Pradhan’s post is reserved as per the population in a rotation. With SC and general population being wiped out from several villages, it means that such areas will not have any general candidates. One should also think why general and SC population is moving out from Etawah,” Uday Bhan said.

District Magistrate Nitin Bansal, however, said that voter list revision is still under process and it is too early to find out any irregularities. “We will publish the list on August 11 and political parties can lodge their objections. There may be some specific complaints for some villages, which will be reviewed,” he added.

Bansal claimed that such complaints are being received in several other districts too.