NEW DELHI —The Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi on Monday demanded a detailed discussion in the Parliament on the contentious issue of voters list, citing alleged discrepancies in the electoral rolls and duplication of Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers.
Rahul Gandhi, speaking in Lok Sabha during the Zero Hour, said that the entire Opposition wanted a discussion on the voters list and appealed to Speaker Om Birla to facilitate the same.
Congress MP’s demand for a discussion on the electoral rolls comes in the wake of the raging controversy over EPIC numbers. Days ago, Congress and TMC trained guns on the Election Commission demanding that it must come clean on the ‘duplicacy’ in the electoral rolls, failing which it will carry out an ‘expose’ on the poll panel.
Last month, Congress also questioned the alleged anomalies in Maharashtra Assembly elections claiming that more voters were added to the list in the past five months, as compared to the past five years.
Raising the pitch on the alleged discrepancies, Rahul Gandhi said in Lok Sabha, “The voter lists are being questioned across the country. Questions have been raised by the opposition in every state, including Maharashtra. It is pertinent that the House holds a debate on the issue.
While demanding a dedicated discussion, he also hurled a direct charge at the Speaker, drawing an instant rebuttal from the latter.
“We accept your remarks that the government does not make voter lists. But we demand a discussion on the issue,” the Congress leader said in concluding remarks.
Meanwhile, a delegation of 10 TMC MPs is set to meet Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to lodge complaints over alleged duplicacy in the EPIC numbers.
The poll panel has however ruled out any discrepancy, stating that duplication of alphanumeric series doesn’t necessarily mean a fake voters list.
The controversy broke out after some reports said that multiple people shared the same EPIC number. As the photos surfaced on social media, this gave strength to claims that duplicate IDs were nothing but amounted to fake voters. –IANS