The Hindu : Lyngdoh's `bias' irks Malhotra

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Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

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Lyngdoh's `bias' irks Malhotra

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI SEPT. 20. The Delhi BJP Election Campaign Committee chairman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, today accused the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, of being biased towards the Bharatiya Janata Party and helping the Congress Party in getting bogus votes included in the electoral rolls of Delhi. He also charged Mr. Lyngdoh with showing contempt for the people's elected representatives including Union Ministers by not responding to their repeated requests for taking action in this regard.

Addressing a Press conference, Mr. Malhotra said he had also written to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, pointing out "the biased attitude of the CEC" and warned that the party would be forced to approach the courts if Mr. Lyngdoh continued "to aid and abet illegal preparation of electoral rolls in Delhi''. Alleging that the voters' lists of Delhi have 10 lakh duplicate votes with the same names appearing at two or more places, Mr. Malhotra said that till date the BJP had got lists of 30 Delhi Assembly constituencies scrutinised and had detected 2,45,000 duplicate names. The scrutiny of the remaining 40 constituencies would be undertaken within the next two days and it is estimated that about six lakh duplicate votes would be detected through computer search.

"This scrutiny had been done in the case of duplicate votes appearing in the voters' lists of the Assembly constituencies, but if the scrutiny is done on the basis of Parliamentary constituencies or all the voters' lists in Delhi, the number of such fraudulent voters would be over 10 lakh,'' he added.

Attributing the large-scale inclusion of bogus votes to the circular issued by the Election Commission, Mr. Malhotra said despite repeated demand by the BJP the circular has not been withdrawn. The Residents' Welfare Associations working under the Bhagidari Scheme were being called to scrutinise the bogus votes and a majority of them were affiliated to the Congress Party. Listing of voters at new places without verification of old places had resulted in inclusion of not only names of those living in other cities but also of citizens from Pakistan and Bangladesh which was dangerous for the security of the country.

He said he had written three letters to the CEC in this regard and a delegation of MPs from Delhi including two Union Ministers had sought time to put across their apprehensions but even after 12 days, the CEC has not even replied to the letter leave alone giving time for a meeting. Interestingly, the revision of the electoral rolls comes to an end on September 21. He warned that if bogus votes are not deleted and the Election Commission does not put an end to this practice, the party would be forced to move the court.

Mr. Malhotra charged the CEC with adopting a callous attitude and bias against the BJP and his non-response to requests by MPs and a national party for a meeting was humiliating and discourteous.

He said that in view of the prevailing anomalies in the electoral rolls, there cannot be a surety of holding free and fair polls. In fact, he said the Delhi unit president, Madan Lal Khurana, had also written to the CEC on September 11 but no reply had been received till date.

He also termed the decision to allow RWAs and NGOs to verify the voters' lists as "illegal and violative" of the People's Representation Act.

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