A renewed controversy has emerged in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district after allegations of serious irregularities in the Rajura assembly constituency’s voter list. Senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have drawn attention to what they call “vote theft”, citing manipulated electoral rolls and questionable enrolments during the last Assembly election.
The issue first came to light when Subhash Dhote, a senior Congress leader, reported discrepancies in the voter list during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Following his complaint, Rajura Tehsildar Omprakash Gond filed a police report, naming 20 individuals allegedly linked to fraudulent voter registrations using their mobile numbers.
Despite the FIR, police investigations have made little progress in nearly a year, with officers yet to reach those named.
A team from Aaj Tak, India Today’s sister channel, managed to locate one individual mentioned in the FIR.
The person, speaking under the condition of anonymity, stated, “I received an OTP from the Election Commission 11 months ago, and soon after, a stranger called and asked for the OTP, so I gave it. I have no other knowledge. I did not apply to be listed on the voter roll, nor did I know my name was in the FIR.”
Investigations by the Aaj Tak team revealed that many names, phone numbers, and addresses listed in the FIR were either fictitious or untraceable.
Some numbers led to other states, and several people could not be contacted.
In one case, a number was found to be registered in Gujarat, with the user denying any association. The situation suggests that OTPs sent to random phone numbers were used to enrol fake voters, with further details pending official investigation.
Rajura has long been a Congress stronghold. In the 2024 Assembly election, however, BJP candidate Devrao Bhogade won by a margin of 3,054 votes.
Following complaints of irregularities affecting 18,000 votes, election officials annulled 6,853 votes.
Despite this, Congress leaders allege that over 11,000 additional fraudulent votes were cast and have questioned the legitimacy of the final result.
Congress leader Sachin Bhoyar from Gadchandur said, “In just seven days, many new voters were enroled. The names added to the voter list were from different states and did not exist in this assembly area. Some names were so unusual, like Vakil, America Rai, Ayodhya Prasad, YUH UQJJW, that they raised immediate suspicion.”
“Multiple entries under the same name appeared, each with different addresses and EPIC numbers. We believe this was a conspiracy involving a central agency working with local actors,” he added.
Law enforcement has faced challenges in the probe due to the lack of information about the origin of the fake voter registrations.
The local police have said that they wrote to the Election Commission twice regarding the IP addresses used for these fraudulent votes but have not yet received any information.
“As soon as we get the required details, we will proceed with the investigation,” an officer said.
Former MLA Subhash Dhote said, “Our workers informed us about bogus voter enrolment, after which we submitted a complaint to the district magistrate. The Election Commission cancelled those votes. Such fake voter registrations were done with the intent of vote theft and must be investigated.”
Calls for a thorough probe continue from Congress and local activists as concerns about the integrity of the electoral process remain unresolved.
– Ends
(Inputs by Vikas Rajurkar)
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