Multiple, not bogus voters in MP: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat on Tuesday clarified that the voters whom Congress had claimed are bogus are in fact "duplicate" ones, whose names have appeared in more than one voter list.

In a meeting with the representatives of various political parties here, the CEC said the commission was seriously looking into complaints of irregularities in electoral rolls.

"The commission will ensure the deletion of all multiple voters from the rolls before the Assembly election in the state", he assured the delegates.

Rawat also reviewed the law-and-order situation and election preparedness with the state DGP Rishi Kumar Shukla and Chief Secretary B K Singh.

The Congress had moved a petition against the poll panel in the Supreme Court claiming that there were 60 lakh bogus voters whose names are yet to be deleted.

The court is slated to hear the petition on August 31. State Chief Electoral Officer V Kanta Rao recently said the electoral rolls have been under revision and scrutiny since January this year, and 24 lakh voters were found ineligible and their names deleted.

Since the two by-elections in the state in February, the Congress has been constantly mounting pressure on the Election Commission to thoroughly revise the electoral rolls.

In the run-up to the by-polls in Mungawali and Kolaras Assembly seats, a sizeable number of voters were found bogus in both the constituencies and their names duly deleted. The Congress had won both the by-polls.