The tussle between Congress and SC doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. The apex court of India is set to hear the petition filed by Congress party member Kamal Nath alleging duplication of voters in the electoral list in the poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The plea seeks EC to provide them with the electoral list in word format as it was provided in Rajasthan to find out fake voters. In the petition, Kamal Nath also alleged that there were 60 lakh fake voters found in a survey conducted by him in Madhya Pradesh. The petition was filed through the Congress party member and lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
In the previous hearing, A M Singhvi emphasized that the electoral list be provided in word format so that the fake voters can be easily spotted. However, EC refused this and told that providing the list of voters in PDF format is a measure to prevent any sort of manipulation with voter’s data in the upcoming Rajasthan assembly elections and Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. Regarding the Rajasthan’s voter’s list, it said that it was an error and that the person responsible has been replaced. Referring to the allegation of 60 lakh fake voters in Madhya Pradesh EC said,” Insofar as the allegation of 60 lakhs duplicate, multiple entries are concerned, it is revealed on verification that the complaint is based on limited parameters of a common name, relation and gender. It is significant to mention that the other necessary parameters of age and photo have not been included by the complainant in reaching the said figure of 60 lakhs”.
The Supreme Court had earlier asked Election Commission to give a response to the notice. The Election commission rubbished all the claims and asked Congress not to keep interrupting EC’s work now and then. In the 101-page counter affidavit, EC sought the dismissal of the petition which read,” “No valid and tenable grounds have been shown by the petitioner, Kamal Nath, to justify the grant of the interim relief (as prayed for) in his favour. Thus, the said petition sought to be dismissed outright”. The Election Commission was clearly not happy with the Congress party’s frequent intervention in its working and said that EC cannot work according to the wishes of this grand party.