Senior Congress leaders from Gujarat have alleged that there are at least 18 to 20 lakh duplicate voters found in the electoral list of the state.

These duplicate voters misuse the elections, they said.

Congress Legislative Party whip C.J. Chavda addressing the mediapersons in Gandhinagar on Saturday cited few examples, “In Mehsana constituency alone there are 11,000 duplicate voters, in booth number one there are 22 duplicate voters, booth number 2 (15) and booth number 3 (30). In each constituency there are such duplicate voters.”

Chavda added that it is not difficult to identify duplicate voters.

“In one society or even in a house, how come such duplicate voters have not come to the notice of the Block Level Officer, who has to cover 250 voters’ list and update the electoral list.”

The Congress leader has alleged that if these duplicate voters are not removed from the voters list, it can impact the outcome of the election results while citing 2017 Assembly election results.

He said that the Congress lost 20 seats with less than a margin of 1,000 votes and 35 to 40 seats with a margin of 1000 to 2000 votes during the 2017 state Assembly elections.

“If each constituency has 4,000 to 10,000 duplicate votes, just imagine how it impacts election results.”

Chavda and other leaders sent a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer demanding that from August 21, electoral updation programme is taking place where the Election Commission should ensure that duplicate voters are deleted from the voters’ list.

With inputs from News18