The Election Commission today set aside the electoral rolls published in Chhattisgarh, which the Opposition had said were done improperly, and ordered a summary revision.The Commission also ordered an immediate transfer of the chief electoral officer following an on-the-spot inquiry by deputy election commissioner A.N. Jha. Shukla starts dharnas in Chhattisgarh RAIPUR: Just out of Congress and NCP leader V.C. Shukla mobilised support for a series of district-level dharnas throughout Chhattisgarh. With the Assembly polls slated for this year-end, Shukla is rolling out his anti-Jogi agenda. Barring Raipur, where Shukla-men faced irate groups of Youth Congress workers organising a parallel dharna, it was not a bad show in 14 of the 16 districts. In Raipur, however, the public suffered for over four hours as Youth Congress workers trooped around the NCP dharna venue and put up their banners for an unscheduled dharna, ostensibly against the telecom tariff hike. The aim obviously was to shout down Shukla-men. On more than one occasions, the two parties were about to clash when a Youth Congress supporter starting calling Shukla names. However, police intervened on time. In the evening, NCP workers submitted a 17-point memorandum to state Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahay, highlighting the inability of the Jogi government to address farmers’ issues. The NCP also accused the government of corruption and lawlessness in the state. (ENS) An EC spokesman said the inquiry had found shortcomings in the preparation of electoral rolls in the state where elections are due this year-end. The Election Commission has decided to treat the published rolls as draft rolls and sought objections from public on these within 26 days. The final rolls will published on June 9, he said.The BJP leaders from the state had alleged that the chief electoral officer had refused to furnish copies of draft roll to the Opposition parties.The EC, sources said, took serious note of the officer’s refusal to give the rolls to political leaders on the pretext that he was ‘‘short of stationary’’ and that the government had put a ban on further purchase. Apart from this, sources said, the inquiry had not ‘‘found massive bunglings in the list of the kind discovered in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.’’The EC had also summoned state chief secretary S.K. Mishra over the allegations of grave violations in the final electoral list. This is for the first time that the EC has questioned the state chief secretary on the registration of imaginary voters and deletion of a large number of voters in at least nine out of sixteen districts.Sources said the BJP, in its complaint to the EC, has named nearly a dozen district collectors and SPs who allegedly manipulated the voters’ list. District Collector I.C.P. Kesari said: ‘‘In such a large exercise of enumeration, there are bound to be mistakes. None of these is deliberate. We have ratified these mistakes in the final list.’’
