02-04-2006, 04:58 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Rao effect sees lakhs of fake voters losing their vote
Saugar Sengupta/ Kolkata
West Bengal's Maoist-infested West Midnapore may see over 1.5 lakh fake voters being struck off the electoral rolls, thanks to the presence of Election Commission observer KJ Rao.
Even the Maoists are supportive of the manner in which the EC is discharging its duties, concede district officials. So much so the Maoists have given Mr Rao "free passage" in their territory, sources said.
The Rao effect seems to have begun to work wonders in the district because even before the hero of the Bihar Assembly election resumed his "second innings" - his first visit was to Nadia - the officials had thrown out more than 74,000 "ghost voters" from the district.
Though EC officials refused to go on record a senior official felt: "More than 1.5 lakh fake names could be dropped" acknowledging "even this figure could be the tip of the iceberg."
According to State Election Office, more than seven lakh names have been struck off the electoral rolls in the past few months from Nadia, Burdwan, North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Hooghly, Howrah, Coochbehar, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
"Most number of ghost voters were spotted in Burdwan which accounted for more than 1.1 lakh names," said an EC official. Burdwan is a major CPI(M) stronghold from where the party MP won his seat in the 2004 elections by a huge margin of over four lakh votes.
The border district of Nadia accounted for 94,000 fake voters. "While all the names have been deleted, we expect more names to appear," a district official said.
According to the opposition Congress, the district could still be having as many as one lakh false voters.
South 24 Parganas, another border district stands third in the ranking, though West Midanpore could bypass it soon, EC officials felt.
Sources said more than 90,000 fake names were caught in the district.
A large part of Kolkata, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's constituency Jadavpur, falls in the district.
Sources said, more than 4,700 names were struck off the roll here. According to EC sources, while Darjeeling and Coochbehar accounted for around 32,000 false names, neighbouring Jalpaiguri had 30,000 false voters till the beginning of the second round of survey.
Two bordering district of Malda and Murshidabad, which have earned notoriety in infiltration, trans-border smuggling worth more than 5,000 crore, accounted for 39,000 and 47,000 ghost voters respectively, EC reports suggested. Hooghly, yet another district at a stone's throw from Kolkata, has registered more than 45,000 fake voters, officials said.
According to poll officials, the tally could have been more but for the amount of non-cooperation from the staff mostly from Coochbehar, Nadia and Burdwan districts.
Interestingly, sources from Midnapore on Thursday said, Mr Rao has been getting "overwhelming response" from the populace in West Midnapore.
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Saugar Sengupta/ Kolkata
West Bengal's Maoist-infested West Midnapore may see over 1.5 lakh fake voters being struck off the electoral rolls, thanks to the presence of Election Commission observer KJ Rao.
Even the Maoists are supportive of the manner in which the EC is discharging its duties, concede district officials. So much so the Maoists have given Mr Rao "free passage" in their territory, sources said.
The Rao effect seems to have begun to work wonders in the district because even before the hero of the Bihar Assembly election resumed his "second innings" - his first visit was to Nadia - the officials had thrown out more than 74,000 "ghost voters" from the district.
Though EC officials refused to go on record a senior official felt: "More than 1.5 lakh fake names could be dropped" acknowledging "even this figure could be the tip of the iceberg."
According to State Election Office, more than seven lakh names have been struck off the electoral rolls in the past few months from Nadia, Burdwan, North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Hooghly, Howrah, Coochbehar, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.
"Most number of ghost voters were spotted in Burdwan which accounted for more than 1.1 lakh names," said an EC official. Burdwan is a major CPI(M) stronghold from where the party MP won his seat in the 2004 elections by a huge margin of over four lakh votes.
The border district of Nadia accounted for 94,000 fake voters. "While all the names have been deleted, we expect more names to appear," a district official said.
According to the opposition Congress, the district could still be having as many as one lakh false voters.
South 24 Parganas, another border district stands third in the ranking, though West Midanpore could bypass it soon, EC officials felt.
Sources said more than 90,000 fake names were caught in the district.
A large part of Kolkata, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's constituency Jadavpur, falls in the district.
Sources said, more than 4,700 names were struck off the roll here. According to EC sources, while Darjeeling and Coochbehar accounted for around 32,000 false names, neighbouring Jalpaiguri had 30,000 false voters till the beginning of the second round of survey.
Two bordering district of Malda and Murshidabad, which have earned notoriety in infiltration, trans-border smuggling worth more than 5,000 crore, accounted for 39,000 and 47,000 ghost voters respectively, EC reports suggested. Hooghly, yet another district at a stone's throw from Kolkata, has registered more than 45,000 fake voters, officials said.
According to poll officials, the tally could have been more but for the amount of non-cooperation from the staff mostly from Coochbehar, Nadia and Burdwan districts.
Interestingly, sources from Midnapore on Thursday said, Mr Rao has been getting "overwhelming response" from the populace in West Midnapore.
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