Rajasthan Congress leaders complain to CEC about bogus votes

Jaipur : A delegation of Rajasthan Congress on Tuesday complained to the the Election Commission against what they called 40-45 lakh bogus votes on the electoral lists in the desert state.

The delegation that met Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat in Delhi included state unit President Sachin Pilot, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, C.P. Joshi, Rameshwar Dudi and Rajasthan party affairs incharge Avinash Pandey.

Pilot told IANS that 40-45 lakh of the total 4.75 crore voters in Rajasthan were fake and that the matter needed to be investigated thoroughly.

"The electoral list data from the Election Commission website was downloaded and we were stunned to see that names of more than 100 persons with similar age and address particulars was duplicated many times over."

The Congress leader also expressed surprise over the fact that 70 lakh new voters had been added to the state in the last four-and-a-half years. "The rate of population growth seems to be less vis-a-vis the increase in voters numbers," he quipped.

Pilot said that Rawat had assured the delegation of a fair probe.

Elections to the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly will be held by year-end.