THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP has raised serious allegations against the recently published draft voter list for the local body elections. At a press conference, the party’s State General Secretary Anoop Antony claimed that there are widespread irregularities in the list, including more than 2.75 lakh duplicate votes. He alleged that widespread irregularities were carried out in the voter list using officials with Left-leaning affiliations, out of fear of facing a setback in the elections. He also stated that the party is ready to provide evidence for this.

The irregularities include adding multiple individuals under a single ID card number, registering the same person with the same ID number in different locations and including individuals with the same name, guardian, and address but different ID numbers.

A total of 2,76,799 individuals reportedly have duplicate entries. 7,216 people allegedly have duplicate votes in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation alone.

He pointed out Ward No. 76 – Beemapally as a clear example of manipulation. During the final delimitation process, the population was recorded as 9,875. But when the draft voter list was published, the number had shot up to over 16,000.

Anoop Antony demanded that the Election Commission intervene seriously in the matter, remove the lakhs of duplicate votes, and take criminal action against the officials involved in the manipulation. He added that the BJP has already submitted a formal complaint to the Election Commission. State Secretary V.V. Rajesh and City District President Karamana Jayan were also present at the press conference.