Congress alleges ‘conspiracy’ in Gujarat roll revision

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Pradesh Congress chief Amit Chavda on Thursday sharpened his attack on the BJP and the Election Commission (EC) for the ongoing SIR of their electoral roles, alleging that in a well-planned conspiracy, an attempt was being made to disenfranchise lakhs of genuine voters with the ruling dispensation in Gujarat.

He pointed out that the names of around 74 lakh voters were canceled when Gujarat’s draft SIR list was published in December. Chavda said that ECI has declared January 18 as the last date for submission of Form 7. “Till January 15, negligible Form 7s had arrived at the ECI, but since January 15, there has been a sudden increase in applications and the ECI told us that 12,59,229 Form 7 objections were received on January 22.” Chavda said, adding that the Congress had flagged the “conspiracy” against the ECI on January 17 and had filed an application in this regard. CCTV footage of people making Form 7 objections on 18 January.

Chavda said that a significant number of objections were made under fictitious names, and that they even made affidavits stating that the objections to voters were made in their names without their knowledge and consent.