Congress alleged that BJP is hatching conspiracy by omitting around 30,000 voters from the MC Shimla list. Congress has decided to meet Governor Urmila Singh to apprise her of the foul play being indulged in by the BJP government.
General Secretary of the party Kuldeep Rathore and Mayor Madhu Sood said even the names of sitting councillors had been omitted and many major residential complexes having 150 to 200 voters had been left out.
The names of sitting councillors Maheshwar Chauhan (Congress) and Meera Sharma (CPM) were missing and as against the total of over one lakh voters in the last elections, the draft electoral rolls had only about 80,000 voters. In some wards the number of voters had come down by 25 to 30 per cent from last election figures. They asserted that if no corrective measures were taken, the party councillors would even move the high court to check the BJP’s nefarious designs to win the poll by any means.
Moreover, only three working days had been provided for filing claims and objections up to April 4 and it was physically impossible for three tehsildars to handle the claims of over 20,000 electors in such a short period. They demanded a review of the entire voters’ list and more time for filing claims and objections.
Referring to the report of the Vidhan Sabha panel, they said the Congress stand that the BJP government was not interested in the implementation of the mission to deny credit to the Congress-ruled corporation had been vindicated. Urban Development Minister Mohinder Singh, who illegally diverted funds sanctioned under the JNNURM, should resign or Chief Minister PK Dhumal should sack him.
Deputy Mayor Harish Janartha also termed it a plot and said that according to the MC Law, any Himachali who is residing in Shimla for more then six months is legible to vote in Shimla MC Election and cutting these names off is wrong and unlawful.
Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM) also has strongly ridiculed the state government for making the process of preparation of electoral rolls for MC Shimla as farce and tuned to the directions of the BJP. The state election commission has made the entire exercise as an effort to ensure that a large number of the people do not vote as they are not being enrolled as voters. The CPIM has expressed shock at the process of preparation of voters list being carried out by the Shimla Deputy Commissioner. The rules for conducting election have been prepared by the urban development department and were notified on 23rd March 2012. The process of electoral rolls preparation must be done accordingly. However the district administration that is entrusted the task of preparing the rolls prepared the list in 5 days and brought out before the people on 28th March. How could the district administration finish such a daunting task in 5 days and enroll more than 77 thousand voters and left over 40 thousand voters with a deliberate attempt to rig the elections in the interests of the ruling BJP.
