In Bengal, Rao finds 500 false voters in 400 km

From a trickle it has become a flood. As Election Commission observer K J Rao travelled Nadia district to oversee the roll revision process,...

From a trickle it has become a flood. As Election Commission observer K J Rao travelled Nadia district to oversee the roll revision process, he found as many as 500 false voters in the list today. Yesterday, he had found 14 false voters. ‘‘It’s surprising. How did it happen, ADM saab?’’ Rao asked the accompanying additional district magistrate of Nadia, Rajesh Sinha. But Sinha had no answers.

Like yesterday, the Congress and Trinamool Congress workers handed over a list of complaints to Rao. The EC observer conducted a house-to-house check, covering seven villages in Shantipur and Simurali constituencies.

As his convoy traversed about 400 kms, he found at least 500 anomalies—ranging from the inclusion of dead and fake voters to those who were not residing at their given addresses.

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Rao started his day’s journey from the Fulia BDO office. From there, he headed to Belgharia village where he found 22 suspect voters on the rolls—11 were dead and 11 were not residents of the addresses given. He then moved to Chutorpara, where one Surajit Das was found to have two electoral photo identity cards (EPICs) in his name. On checking, one EPIC was found to be fake.

The biggest surprise was in store at Malopara South of Sanyalchar, under Simurali constituency. With river erosion ravaging the village, 150 residents have moved out to make their homes elsewhere. But their names still figure on the voting list of the area.

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