Bhopal: Veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh, on Monday, met the Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Shrivastava and submitted a memorandum, alleging that thousands of fake names had been added to the voter list in Bhopal’s Narela Assembly constituency.
Singh said that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) being conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) is intended to purify the voter list by removing the names of deceased and illegal migrant voters and adding new eligible voters.
“However, contrary to this practice, in the Narela Assembly constituency in Bhopal, a large number of people have been added to the voter list, who do not even reside at the relevant address,” the veteran Congress leader alleged.
Former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, while talking to the media, said that a ground investigation conducted by Congress workers revealed that the final voter list released on February 21, 2026, contains many names of voters that have no connection to their residence address.
To justify his allegations, the veteran Congress leader claimed that the total number of voters added at some addresses (house numbers) were not matching with the number of voters.
Citing an example of such irregularities in the voter list, Digvijaya Singh said that Pokhan Lal Sahu (House number 2) in Ratan Colony of Karond area has only six voters, but 37 voters are listed in the same address.
“Similarly, Kamalendra Kumar Gupta (house number 10), and Hamir Singh Yadav (house number 21) have 36 and 43 voters registered at their addresses, while their families actually have only six, eight, and four eligible voters, respectively.”
During a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer Shrivastava, Digvijaya Singh said that maintaining an accurate and transparent voter list is a fundamental Constitutional requirement for democracy, and that the Election Commission’s credibility rests on this premise.
Talking to the media persons, the veteran Congress leader added that Congress has no faith in the SIR process, and based on the evidence that has emerged, an FIR should be filed immediately against the concerned booth level officer and his supervisor and they should be arrested.
Digvijaya Singh warned that if an FIR is not filed in this matter, he himself will hold a protest outside the Election Commission’s office.
“If any eligible voter’s name is omitted, it should be added through Form-6, but attempts to influence the democratic process by adding fake names will not be tolerated under any circumstances,” he alleged.
He also said that he, along with 22 political parties, had previously written a letter to the Election Commission on this issue, but the Commission did not even acknowledge it.
He also demanded that the State Chief Electoral Officer immediately remove all fake names from the voter list based on the affidavits filed by the residential house owners and that an independent committee be formed to conduct an impartial investigation into the matter.
(IANS)
