Cong's duplicate voters claim amid NRC demand
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 12, 2023 -

THE office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manipur definitely owes an explanation regarding the contention by Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) that over 1.30 lakh voters enlisted in the official electoral roll bear facial similarities and multiple voters have the same photo.

The MPCC's claim assumes significance as various organisations have been demanding update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and its effective implementation in view of the unprecedented increase in the number of population in some hill districts.

Amid strong apprehension that such sharp spike in population manifests sinister ploy by certain group of people to bring in'and facilitate permanent settlement of non-natives in the state, the startling abnormalities in the photo electoral roll detected in almost all the 60 assembly constituencies signify involvement of the political class as fresh enrolment and deletion of voters are generally done with the involvement of political workers at the behest of the legislators or his/her political rivals.

That not all the politicians are trustworthy could be gauged from the fact that exuberantly wealthy individuals and criminal elements have better chances of winning election than the ordinary mortals.

The general belief that the political class could not be relied upon was also substantiated to a great extent few years back when the then Chief justice of India Dipak Misra, who headed a five-judge constitution bench that examined a petition pertaining to allegations of criminal elements infesting the Indian political system, directed political parties to post on their websites and publicise in the media full details about criminal charges faced by candidates fielded for elections.

While the directive demonstrated that the Supreme Court bench was seriously worried over possible involvement of criminals in running the country and states, it was expected that officials of the Manipur CEO would be on their toes starting with maintaining an adulterated electoral roll, without which it is obvious that whoever, politicians to be specific, engineered false entry of electors would have an edge during any democratic exercises.

As told to the media by MPCC Legal Department chairman Sanoujam Shyamcharan after submitting a memorandum to the Manipur CEO with the request for verifying and deleting the duplicate voters on Monday, Imphal East district has 6149 dubious voters, Imphal West accounted for 5603, Bishnupur 2643, Thoubal 5059, Jiribam 276, Chandel 14,432, Ukhrul 12,031, Kangpokpi 8222, Senapati 40,951, Tamenglong 14,034 and Churachandpur 24,159.

These figures also underscore that the various activities and awareness programmes conducted periodically by the election-conducting authorities to promote free and fair elections are serving the purpose of only enrolment of youngsters who meet the age criteria.

In this age of advanced information technology and highly reliable electronic devices, when enrolment and deletion of voters are carried out through the digital system, it is hard to believe that the multiple entries and photo similarities went undetected.

As the Congress party's expose is certain to prod the conscience of the Manipur CEO, it is wished that swift measures be initiated to overhaul the photo electoral roll so as to ensure that aspiring people's representatives fight elections on his/her merit and not through the use of devious means such as exploiting the socio-economically underprivileged section of the society.