DMK alleges discrepancies in electoral rolls in Srirangam

DMK today alleged that there were 9,000 'double entries' in the electoral rolls in bypoll-bound Srirangam constituency and asked the Election Commission to take action.
Party's Legal Wing Secretary RS Bharathy submitted a memorandum to Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Saxena, demanding action on a similar representation already submitted to him.
A copy of it had also been sent to Chief Election Commissioner HS Brahma, he said.
The memorandum recalled that even before the publication of the final roll, DMK had represented to the CEO on various 'anomalies' including about duplication of voters.
He said when the final roll was published on January one, they found a lot discrepancies including double entries of the same voters in various assembly constituencies.

"Now we understand that the electoral rolls published by the Election Commission in Srirangam Assembly constituency has up to at least 9,000 double entries," Bharathy said.

Saxena had promised to address the issue following availability of computer software to find out the ASD (Absent, Shift and Death) and create a separate list, but it has not been done so far, he said.
Instead of creating a separate ASD List, the CEO should identify the duplication of voters' names and delete them from the rolls and supply a fresh list to all electoral officers, he said.
DMK asked the CEC to take "immediate and concrete steps to remove the duplications by directing Saxena and ensure that the persons whose names have been duplicated do not vote more than once on polling day."

The February 13 bypoll for Srirangam was necessitated due to the disqualification of AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa who was convicted in a graft case.