Mandi Ahmedgarh, May 15
They are not permanent residents of any locality in the state. Nor do they have any ration card. Still they got registered as voters at certain villages in Sangrur district. They were promised free houses, besides cash considerations. Cars took them to various polling booths, but their return journey was not so comfortable.
Now, they have been asked to wait for the formation of a new government at the Centre, after which they will be paid settled amount for casting their votes in favour of certain candidates.
The tales narrated by hundreds of nomads, including snake charmers and jugglers, in the state, have put a question mark over the working of officials responsible for finalising voter lists for the Sangrur and Fatehgarh constituencies.
Accusing the administration of preparing fake votes to favour SAD leaders Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, president of the Lok Bhalai Party, and BP Singh Gill, both candidates from these constituencies, have urged the Election Commission to probe the irregularity. They have urged the authorities to stagger declaration of results after verifying the facts.
The “fake vote scam” surfaced when a large number of nomads, who had been staying in slum colonies and huts on the outskirts of villages, near here, disappeared for a few days last week.
Investigations revealed that they had been taken away by supporters of certain candidates launched by a regional party.
While a majority of the nomads, on return, tried to put off this reporter by maintaining that they had gone in search of work, some of them admitted to having gone to cast their votes at some villages in the Sunam Assembly segment of the Sangrur constituency.
Admitting that 10 members of his family had been registered as voters at Kaimbowal village, Baru lamented that the middleman had not paid him the settled amount for casting votes in favour of certain candidate.He added that the middleman had promised to get them a free house allotted after the elections.
Showing some photo identity cards, he maintained that the middleman had kept other cards with him for use during the next elections.
Charanjit Singh, a slum dweller, admitted that they had been registered as voters in a village under the Amargarh assembly. Certain leaders got them photographed for voter identity cards.
