All parties must demand sanitised, flawless voters' list: Kamal Nath

Nath says the electoral roll should be prepared at least 30 days in advance from the date of the election notification

Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath, who has petitioned the Supreme Court over the existence of a large number of duplicate voters in electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, on Monday asked all political parties to demand a flawless voters' list.

"Every political party must demand a correct, flawless and sanitised voter list," Nath told the media here after a Supreme Court bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan reserved its verdict on his plea.

Pointing to the fact that the Election Commission had dropped 2,400,000 voters from the voter list published in January, Nath said the electoral roll should be prepared at least 30 days in advance from the date of the election notification.
 

"Unless and until all political demand for a sanitised voters' list and the same is provided by the Commission, the elections can't be free and fair," he added.

Nath, the Madhya Pradesh Congress chief and his Rajasthan counterpart Sachin Pilot had moved the Supreme Court alleging duplication of voters in the electoral rolls in the two poll-bound states.

Among the major demands made in the plea is publication of the voter list in text format instead of image format, and prohibition on deletion of voters from the voter list without intimation to political parties.