PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
The Congress has hailed the decision of the Supreme Court in which it dismissed the plea of the State Election Commission for a stay on the Uttarakhand High Court order on the issue of allowing persons with names in multiple voter lists to contest the Panchayat elections. An SC bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta also imposed a penalty of Rs two lakh in the SEC in its hearing on Friday.
The leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Yashpal Arya said that the SC order has vindicated the stand of the Congress party on the issue of allowing candidates with names in multiple voter lists correct. He said that the SEC had refused to cancel the nomination of candidates with names in multiple voter lists on which the HC had directed the SEC to act as per the Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj Act 2016 which prohibits candidates having names in the multiple voter lists to contest the elections.
Arya claimed that when elections of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) were held in January the BJP shifted names of its people from the voter list of villages to cities. After the end of ULB elections it started shifting the names of its people back to the voter lists of villages in order to take undue advantage in the Panchayat elections. The LoP said the Congress caught this act of BJP and Pradesh Congress Committee president Karan Mahara wrote many letters to the SEC on the issue. The Congress reminded the SEC that one should reside in that address for a minimum period of six months for adding the name in the voter list of that area.
Arya further claimed that after the protests of Congress the people affiliated with BJP started adding their names in the voter lists of villages instead of shifting and thus became voters of two areas. The BJP gave tickets to such candidates and when the SEC was asked to cancel their nomination it refused to follow the rules. This action of SEC was challenged in the HC by the commission to cancel the nomination of such candidates but instead of following the HC order, the SEC challenged it in the SC. Arya said that the SC has now imposed a penalty on SEC which is a stamp of approval on the saga of theft of votes.
