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MADHYA PRADESH Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar on Tuesday alleged widespread irregularities in the state’s voter registration process, saying “votes were stolen” in more than 27 seats in the 2023 Assembly elections and the ruling BJP was given “unethical benefit”.
At a press conference in Bhopal, Singhar presented his own data to show that voter registrations increased by only 4.64 lakh over seven months from January to August, but then surged dramatically by 16.05 lakh between August and October, effectively adding 26,000 new voters daily during that period.
“Vote theft took place in more than 27 Assembly seats in the state and this was done to give unethical benefit to the BJP,” he said.
The State Election Commission has not yet responded to Singhar’s claims. The poll panel refused to comment on the allegations when contacted by The Indian Express.
Reacting to the allegations, State minister and BJP leader Vishwas Sarang said whether it is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi or state LoP Singhar, “Congress leaders are misleading the country with baseless allegations without facts or data”. “Why has Congress suddenly woken up from its deep slumber 20 months after the Assembly elections,” Sarang asked.
“How many complaints they filed regarding the 27 constituencies they are now citing. Do they have any receipts of complaints filed with the (Election) Commission? If irregularities existed in those 27 seats, why didn’t they register objections?”
In the 2023 Assembly polls, the Congress was hoping to return to power on the wave of anti-incumbency. However, the BJP got a landslide majority after it won 163 seats, while the Congress managed to win only 66. Since the defeat, several Congress leaders, including former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, have blamed irregularities and EVM manipulation for the BJP win.
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Singhar pointed to a June 9, 2023 Election Commission directive instructing Chief Electoral Officers in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana not to publish voter list modifications made between January and June 2023.
The letter issued by EC under secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh stated, “The publication of updated electoral roll w.r.t. 1st July, 2023 as the qualifying date in the five poll going states shall not be done, so that pre-revision activities like rationalization of polling station etc. can be carried out before the publication of integrated draft electoral roll w.r.t. 01.10.2023.”
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