As many as 343 voter identity cards were found floating along the banks of Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district on Sunday, prompting the Congress to demand an FIR and an impartial investigation into the matter.
The incident comes amid nationwide protests against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and allegations of irregularities in voter lists.
Preliminary information suggests that the 343 voter ID cards belong to the Rau assembly constituency in Indore district, which is part of the Indore Lok Sabha constituency, news agency PTI reported.
The seat is currently represented by BJP MLA Madhu Verma, while former Congress MLA Jitu Patwari previously represented the constituency.
Residents found the cards during a cleanliness drive along the riverbank and informed the administration.
A video showing the recovered cards subsequently went viral on social media. However, HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Watch here:
Congress demands probe
District Congress president Ravi Naik, accompanied by party workers, approached the Mandleshwar police station and submitted a complaint seeking registration of an FIR.
Naik questioned the functioning of the Election Commission and demanded action against those responsible. The Congress also called for a search operation in the river with the help of divers to check whether more voter ID cards had been discarded.
“The Congress will gherao the police station if an FIR is not registered,” Naik warned.
Mandleshwar Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Shweta Shukla said the voter ID cards were found during the cleanliness drive along the Narmada.
The revenue team seized the cards, and the police station in-charge was directed to investigate the matter, Shukla said. The police had also received a complaint from the Congress, she added.
The controversy comes as opposition parties intensify their campaign against the SIR exercise and the Election Commission's handling of electoral rolls. Recent protests in Delhi and other cities have called for CEC Gyanesh Kumar's resignation and the scrapping of the revision exercise, with demonstrators raising concerns about alleged voter deletions.
The Election Commission, meanwhile, has directed states to conduct special enrolment drives to ensure eligible voters are included in the rolls.
The Congress has also demanded a probe into voter lists across the country and a halt to the SIR exercise. Separately, the poll panel has ordered annual revisions of electoral rolls in states and Union territories where the SIR process has been completed.
Mandleshwar, where the voter ID cards were found, falls under the Maheshwar assembly constituency, represented by BJP MLA Rajkumar Mev. The area is part of the Khargone Lok Sabha constituency, represented by BJP MP Gajendra Singh Patel.
(With inputs from agencies)