Dharwad: JD(S) mahanagar district president Gururaj Hunasimarad on Monday demanded a high-level inquiry into the alleged inclusion of more than 75,000 bogus, duplicate, deceased and shifted voters in the electoral rolls of the Hubballi-Dharwad West Assembly constituency.Addressing a news conference, Hunasimarad said the large-scale discrepancies came to light during the recent comprehensive revision of electoral rolls. He claimed that he had earlier highlighted anomalies involving nearly 64,000 voters, but a subsequent verification exercise revealed that more than 75,000 names in the constituency were allegedly duplicate, belonged to deceased persons, or were linked to voters who had shifted out of the constituency.Questioning the electoral roll management process, he asked how such a large number of ineligible names could continue to remain in the voter list despite periodic revisions and verification drives carried out by election authorities.Hunasimarad alleged that the constituency has a population of around two lakh, while the electoral roll contains nearly 2.7 lakh voters. According to him, the wide gap between the estimated population and the number of registered voters raises serious concerns over the credibility and accuracy of the electoral rolls.Referring to the revised voter list provided by the district administration, he said the presence of a substantial number of duplicate and deceased voters pointed to major lapses in the preparation, scrutiny and verification of electoral data.He urged the Election Commission to intervene immediately, order an impartial inquiry into the alleged irregularities and take stringent action against those responsible, if any violations are found.Hunasimarad further demanded stronger legal safeguards to prevent the inclusion of bogus voters and curb electoral malpractices. He suggested that electoral rolls should be finalised at least six months ahead of elections to provide sufficient time for verification, correction of errors and removal of ineligible entries.He said ensuring clean and accurate electoral rolls was essential to safeguarding the integrity of the democratic process and maintaining public confidence in elections.
