Agartala, Dec 31 (IANS) The opposition Congress Monday protested outside 23 offices of the electoral registration officers (EROs) in Tripura, demanding error-free electoral rolls.
The Congress held protests outside offices of all 23 Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDM), who are the EROs in Tripura, alleging that thousands of fake and ineligible names were included in the voters’ rolls.
“The ruling CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) with the help of some officers has included thousands of fake names in the voters’ lists to get electoral mileage in the next assembly polls. Even names of Bangladeshi citizens were incorporated in the voters’ lists,” Tripura Pradesh Congress president Sudip Roy Barman told reporters here.
Special summary revisions of electoral rolls are going on in the state. Jan 1 is the qualifying date for inclusion of new voters.
The Election Commission (EC) appointed observers after rescheduling the ongoing revision of electoral rolls following the Congress’ complaint about discrepancies in the voters’ lists.
The crucial assembly elections in the country’s only Left ruled state are scheduled to be held in Feb 2013.
Barman alleged that officials are working at the behest of the ruling CPI-M.
The CPI-M termed the Congress’ move as undemocratic and interference in the working of the EC.
“The Congress is scared of the assembly elections as it would suffer a humiliating defeat. That is why the party wants to come to power through the back door as it did in 1988,” CPI-M state secretary Bijon Dhar told reporters.
He said that the opposition party was trying to delay the process of revising electoral rolls aiming to promulgate president’s rule in the state.
According to the draft electoral lists published Sep 20, total number of voters in Tripura is 2,277,415, of them 1,114,100 women.
The final publication of the electoral rolls will be made Jan 12 instead of Jan 5, as announced earlier.
