Demand for re‐polling before 2nd December 2015 voters who were deprived from their voting right and set up judicial inquiry to investigate the conspiracy of deletion of voters within last 24 hours
By Dr Varesh Sinha, State Election Commissioner
Sir,
On 22nd November, 2015, the day of election, Ahmedabad Collector himself had taken the stand that the voters on whose names ‘Delete” stamp was marked, they might be allowed to vote. He had issued circular too. It does mean that he has accepted that some mischief has been played by the conspirators. And, now the Collector may be under pressure, says that he has not received any complaints from any of the eligible voters and so, everything is alright and there is no need for repolling.
It is extremely unfortunate that the State Election Commission headed by you is taking up the process of conducting local body elections, in a very casual way. It is not that we make this allegation but it is an outcome from the media reports and your interviews with press & electronic media. Instead of taking the matter of deletion of eligible voters within 24 hours time which is surely an unconstitution approach as there is a well defined and prescribed procedure for deletion of voters, Ahmedabad Collector as well as you have said that the voters lists were prepared by ECI. True, but the main question is who, why and under whose instructions, the ‘Delete’ stamp was put on names of voters who were already there in the voters list. Therefore, ECI does not seem to be responsible. ECI has done its duty and that is all. It is SEC, District Collector and local body chief who have to assume responsibility for what has happened.
Under the circumstances, we demand following:
- 1. Organize rerolling before 2nd December, 2015 at least for the voters who were deprived to exercise their vote and participate in the process of selection of their elected representatives.
- Ordering judicial inquiry headed by Retired High Court Judge for the investigation of criminal conspiracy and identification of persons who were responsible for this tragedy in the history of State Election Commission. This conspiracy is nothing but the blot on SEC and we believe that it is your constitutional responsibility to save the credibility of SEC which is at stake.
Whole India is looking to Gujarat for its development model and therefore, Gujarat credibility is at stake.
Thanking you in anticipation that you will appreciate our demands and will do the needful.
Yours faithfully,
Gautam Thaker, General Secretary, PUCL Gujarat State