Goa Forward Party chief and MLA Vijai Sardesai on Saturday alleged that Nepalese nationals had been added to Goa's electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision exercise, news agency Press Trust of India reported. He demanded an impartial and time-bound investigation into the alleged irregularities.
Sardesai claimed that some "invisible" voters had been added to the electoral rolls while eligible voters found their names missing. "Nepalese nationals have been added as voters in Goa during the SIR exercise. How can any foreign national be a part of India's electoral roll?" he asked at a press conference in Panaji.
The Fatorda MLA said his party would conduct street plays to encourage people to check whether their names were on the rolls. He cited instances of voters from his constituency allegedly finding that their names had been deleted without their knowledge.
According to PTI, Sardesai also lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer, alleging that more than 50 voters had been illegally shifted from the Curtorim Assembly constituency to Fatorda even though their addresses remained unchanged. He emailed the complaint on Friday and sought an impartial and time-bound investigation.
The former deputy chief minister claimed that several voters listed in Curtorim during the 2012 and 2017 Assembly elections appeared on Fatorda's electoral rolls in 2022 and 2026. He said the alleged transfers raised concerns about the accuracy and integrity of the rolls and whether voter registration rules and constituency boundaries had been followed.
Describing the alleged irregularities as "merely the tip of the iceberg", Sardesai sought the Chief Electoral Officer's urgent intervention to investigate what he called a "deliberate attempt to manipulate electoral records".
The complaint cited the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and relevant Election Commission of India guidelines. It said voter registration must comply with legally notified constituency boundaries and the requirement that voters ordinarily reside in the constituency where they are registered.
Sardesai sought the deletion of entries found to have been illegally shifted, disciplinary action and criminal prosecution against those responsible, and a statewide audit to determine whether similar alleged irregularities had occurred in other constituencies. He also submitted voter details from Curtorim's electoral rolls for 2012 and 2017 and Fatorda's rolls for 2021 and 2026 in support of his allegations.
The allegations come amid protests by the INDIA bloc and the Cockroach Janta Party demanding the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities and mass deletion of voters during the revision of electoral rolls. Sardesai has asked the Chief Electoral Officer to investigate the alleged addition, deletion and transfer of voters across Goa.
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With PTI inputs