Lok Sabha Elections 2019: No duplication of voters in the Pune district list

According to the officials in the Pune Election Commission office, there is no duplication of names in the Pune district’s voter list.

While the state election commission (SEC) has identified a list of 15 lakh repeated names in the state voter list, the Pune district list does not have any duplication of names.

Pune district collector said the administration had directed all the booth level officers from 21 assembly constituencies to verify, check and ensure all the evidences before deleting any name on the voter list.(HT File / Representational Photo)

After the Maharashtra Congress submitted a list of more than 44 lakh duplicate voters (names that have been repeated twice) on the state’s electoral rolls to the Election Commission of India (ECI) last month, the Maharashtra poll watchdog on Monday said it has found some substance in the allegation. It has detected at least 15 lakh repeated names.

However, according to the officials in the Pune EC office, there is no duplication of names in the Pune district’s voter list.

Monica Singh, Pune deputy election officer, said, “In the Pune district, 81,005 names have already been deleted from the voter list, hence, there is no duplication. A total of 54,584 names were deleted in the draft roll which also included duplication and deceased voters. The rest of the 26,421 names were deleted in the summary roll published on January 31 this year.”

Monica said that the office will check the names again if the state election commission gives a directive.

According to Election Commission of India officials, the deletion process started a year ago in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and assembly elections and the process to clean up the electoral list.

Naval Kishore Ram, Pune district collector, had said that after the 2014 Lok Sabha election experience, the administration had directed all the booth level officers (BLOs) from 21 assembly constituencies to verify, check and ensure all the evidences before deleting any name on the voter list.

According to officials, ECI does not encourage deletion of voters in an election year as it may lead to an additional burden on the machinery and wrong deletion may deprive many eligible ones from voting.