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Bhopal, Oct 28 (IANS) After the Election Commission of India announced a special intensive revision drive aimed at improving the voter list of Madhya Pradesh, the Congress party has called for the implementation of digitally readable voter lists and mandatory Aadhaar card verification.
The drive, launched on Monday, is an important step towards updating the state’s voter registry.
Speaking to reporters in Guna, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh expressed concern that the Election Commission has not provided the digitally identifiable (machine-readable) voter list to the Congress party.
He reiterated his party’s demand that voter lists shared with political representatives be in machine-readable format to facilitate digital cross-verification and identify duplicate entries across constituencies.
Singh also criticized the Election Commission for excluding Aadhaar card from the list of acceptable identity proofs and argued that registering every eligible citizen is both a fundamental right and the main responsibility of the Commission.
He further pointed out that, despite Supreme Court directions, the Commission has excluded Aadhaar card from the list of 11 documents that booth level officers (BLOs) are directed to verify during their door-to-door surveys.
Under the Commission’s direction, every voter in the state will have to undergo fresh identity verification. Voter lists will be carefully scrutinized at each polling station in all 230 assembly constituencies. This extensive exercise aims to serve several key objectives: enrolling new voters who have turned 18, removing names of deceased persons, those who have permanently relocated, and duplicate entries.
Additionally, inaccuracies in names, addresses and other personal details will be corrected to ensure that the voter list accurately reflects the current population.
To execute this task, BLOs will visit door-to-door in both urban and rural areas, distribute forms, collect data and verify identity using officially recognized documents.
Madhya Pradesh currently has around 57.4 million voters. 65,014 polling stations, 119,940 BLOs, 762 Assistant Returning Officers and 55 District Election Officers are working in coordination in this massive revision effort.
The gender breakdown of the voter base includes approximately 29.2 million males and 27.8 million females. Analysis of age demographics reveals a youth bias in some areas.
There are 1,119,161 voters in the state in the age group of 18 to 19, 13,388,424 in the age group of 20 to 29, 15,144,883 in the age group of 30 to 39, 11,528,407 in the age group of 40 to 49, 8,131,709 in the age group of 50 to 59. 4,815,858 citizens aged between 60 to 69, 2,211,505 between 70 and 79 years, and 752,420 citizens aged 80 years and above.
The second phase of the amendment has already sparked political debate. The Election Commission stressed its commitment to maintaining the integrity and credibility of the voter registry, calling this initiative an exclusive and intensive process that will create a strong foundation for free and fair elections in the future.
–IANS
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