A day after the Madhya Pradesh Congress lodged a complaint alleging there are 60 lakh fake voters in the state, four teams of officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI) reached the state on Monday to probe the opposition party’s allegations.

The ECI teams would send daily reports to the ECI about their respective investigations. The final report would be submitted on 7 June.

MP Congress chief Kamal Nath along with MP election campaign committee chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijay Singh and other senior leaders had lodged the complaint in New Delhi on Sunday.

The Congress had alleged that there are almost 60 lakh fake voter names in the state assembly constituencies of Narela in Bhopal district, Bhojpur in Raisen and Hoshangabad and Seoni-Malwa constituencies in the Hoshangabad district. All the four assembly constituencies in question are represented by heavyweight BJP MLAs.

Acting on the complaint, the ECI has dispatched four teams comprising of two officials each to probe the allegations.

One of the main tasks of the teams is to find out if any fake or bogus voter names have been added deliberately. In that case, the probe teams would also fix responsibility on the official/s involved so that strict action could be taken against them.

The ECI team that has come to Bhopal to investigate the voter lists of Narela constituency includes ECI principal secretary Sumit Mukherjee and IT Director V N Shukla. MP Cooperatives Department Minister of State Vishwas Sarang is the sitting BJP MLA from the seat. He is the son of senior BJP leader Kailash Narayan Sarang.

Another team comprising principal secretary Anuj Jaipuriar and IT expert Vijay Kumar went to the Bhojpur constituency to conduct verification of voter lists there.

MP Culture and Tourism Minister Surendra Patwa is the BJP’s sitting MLA from the constituency. He is former MP CM Sunderlal Patwa’s son.
A third team of the EC went to the Hoshangabad constituency to probe allegations of fake voter list there.

The team comprises principal secretary K N Bhar and IT expert Sonal Kharbanda. MP State Assembly Speaker Sitasaran Sharma is the sitting BJP MLA from the constituency.

The fourth team consisting of Secretary B C Patra and IT expert Ankit Singh reached the Seoni-Malwa state assembly constituency to probe the Congress party’s allegations of fake voter names. Former MP PWD Minister Sartaaj Singh is the sitting BJP MLA from the constituency.

The teams would investigate voter lists to ascertain if there are bogus or fake voter names, as alleged by the Opposition Congress. The teams would also look into how alleged errors, if any, have crept into the electoral rolls.