KAPURTHALA: With Vidhan Sabha byelection in this constituency about three weeks away, allegations of manoeuvringof votes by the administration are gaining ground.
Surinder Kaur, aresident of Alamgir Kalasanga village, finds her vote likely to be cancelled onthe basis of a complaint lodged by her mother-inlaw Resham Kaur. Resham Kaurappeared in front of the returning officer G S Sandhewalia to testify that shehad made no such complaint.
In another incident, Sucha Singh, aresident of Khajewal village, reportedly told the returning officer that hisneighbour Dilwara Singh''s wife Balbir Kaur had died, so her name be deleted fromthe voters list. Dilwara Singh lodged his protest against it when he appearedalong with his wife at the office of the RO.
The RO''s office is suddenlyflooded with such fictitious complaints. But unless objected to, all the 2800such voters are likely to lose their rights.
In another case of votemanoeuvring, the returning officer finds his office deluged with aspirant voterswho would not disclose their age or address.
More than 175 personshave applied to be enrolled as voters from the Atwal Flour mill in the city eventhough the mill has been closed for more than five years.
More than 300 newvoters are waiting to be enrolled in the Model Town area, where none of theapplicants has given his house number nor his age. Around 240 voters in theSheran Wala Gate area have submitted no address to get themselves enrolled asvoters.
All this formed part of theadministration''s exercise to enroll new voters between June and September forthe by-election. The flood of new voters was so overwhelming that on a singleday on September 12, more than 4,000 persons found their names amongapplicants.
All this is happening in a constituency where the numberof votes grew marginally from 1,19,800 to 1,21,000 in two years from 2002 to2004.
As many as 11,464 new voters wanting to get enrolled in barefour months sounded alarm bells among the opposition parties.
