Congress Accuses BJP of Orchestrating Voter List Tampering in Vadodara
The Vadodara city unit of the Congress party has leveled serious allegations against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of orchestrating a plot to remove thousands of names from the voter list by misusing Form 7 objections. City Congress president Rutvij Joshi stated that over 46,000 applications were submitted across five assembly segments using Form 7, a mechanism that allows voters to raise objections about other voters on the electoral rolls.
Allegations of Systematic Misuse
Joshi asserted that many of these objections were filed by BJP members, describing it as a deliberate ploy to disenfranchise genuine voters. "It is a calculated strategy to remove legitimate voters from the voter list," Joshi alleged, emphasizing the scale of the operation. He provided specific details, noting that in the Vadodara City assembly segment alone, objections against over 4,500 voters were raised by just 152 applicants.
"Why did so few applicants raise multiple objections? We conducted verifications and discovered that the EPIC numbers provided by many of these applicants were false," Joshi added, highlighting what he called fraudulent practices aimed at undermining the electoral process.
Congress Demands Action and Legal Measures
In response to these allegations, the Congress party has demanded immediate intervention from the district collector. Joshi called for the initiation of legal action, including the filing of First Information Reports (FIRs) against those responsible for submitting false objections. "We urge the collector to take stringent measures and file FIRs against individuals who are falsely raising objections with the intent of removing genuine voters from the list," he stated.
Police Detain Congress Workers During Protest
The controversy escalated on Monday when police detained Congress workers who had organized a rally and were en route to submit a memorandum to the collector regarding the alleged false objections. This incident underscores the heightened tensions surrounding the voter list issue in Vadodara, with both parties locked in a contentious dispute over electoral integrity.
The allegations raise significant concerns about the potential manipulation of voter rolls ahead of elections, calling into question the fairness and transparency of the electoral process in the region. As the situation develops, further investigations and official responses are anticipated to address these serious claims.
