Congress casts doubts over fair civic polls in Gujarat

The Opposition Congress has cast doubts over the workings of the State Election Commission (SEC) in Gujarat during the ongoing local government polls.

Gujarat is witnessing a two-phased polls to civic bodies, with first phase ending on November 22 and second phase slated for November 29.

 The voting to six of the eight municipal corporations was held last Sunday.
The Congress has cast aspersions on the functioning of the SEC after over 1.03 lakh eligible voters found their names deleted from voter rolls.

“The people have lost faith in the SEC which appears to be working as state government’s arm,” Bharatsinh Solanki, president of the Gujarat Congress told mediapersons on Tuesday.

“We fear that like first phase, a large number of names of eligible voters would again be deleted from voter rolls.”

Gujarat is set to see polls to 56 municipalities, 230 tehsils and 31 district panchayats in the second phase on Sunday.

The Congress has also put up its workers at various centres housing electronic voting machines (EVMs) that were used during voting in the first phase.

‘No trust on BJP’
“Though there is security, we cannot trust the BJP. There is also a cloud over functioning of SEC and we fear that there could be widespread tampering of EVMs. Our workers would keep watch in shifts, every minute till the counting begins on December 2,” said Solanki.

The SEC has rejected the allegations. Chief electoral officer Varesh Sinha said voter list was primarily done by the Election Commission.

CM slams oppn
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Anandiben Patel on Tuesday blamed the Opposition for turning her own community (Patels) against her through “reservation conspiracy” to get political benefits.

She said this at a public rally in her home town of Patan in north Gujarat, the hub of the Patel quota stir.

On Monday, she made it clear at an election rally that Patels will not get reservation at the cost of other backward communities.