EC official: Homeless voters listed at non-existent address

Following report about a non-existent house no. zero in Defence Colony as per the ECI voter list that appeared in Jalandhar Tribune on September 17, claims and counter-claims continue to surface from Congress leaders as well as election officials.

It had been reported that Punjab Youth Congress secretary Angad Dutta, who is a resident of Defence Colony, had claimed that seven bogus voters had been listed as residents of house no. 0 in his colony. He had downloaded the voter list of his colony from the portal and was unable to verify any of them as being voters from his area. He had also pointed out that there was no house no. zero in his colony.

Election Tehsildar Sukhdev Singh, however, argued that it was wrong to say that these were seven bogus voters. "They would have been homeless people in that locality living outside some temple or other shelter. If we do not put any house number for that voter, software notionally reports such voters in house no. zero. These are not bogus voters as has been alleged and that their identity can be checked from the files of these voters with the booth level officers", he said.

Dutta argues, "I have been living in this colony for many years. I have not seen any shelterless people putting up here. Even if there are any homeless, their address has been mentioned as MC House (night shelter of MC) or back of a temple or front of a hospital or any such indication. There are 15 such voters listed in Defence Colony without a house number (he showed the lists). So why were only seven voters put under house no. 0 and not the remaining 15. There certainly is a huge discrepancy".

The election tehsildar has appealed to all political parties to appoint block level agents (BLAs) as suggested by the ECI. "If all parties have their BLAs working in coordination with us round the year, things would be easier for us and we would be in a better position to explain our point to them. We too want that they should all keep on contacting us for any addition, deletion, objection or required revision of voter lists. They only get active when elections are around and start to cry foul", he said.

Congress leaders, however, have said they have been issued directions by the high command to appoint BLAs at the earliest and assign them duties. The Congress has been raking the issue of 'vote chori' ever since Rahul Gandhi had pointed to mass discrepancies in voter list of Bengaluru. He levelled the charges against Chief Election Commissioner even today.