Team Herald
PANJIM: The opposition parties on Tuesday urged the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) demanding an inquiry into the alleged manipulation in the electoral roll of Mormugao constituency.
As part of summary revision of electoral roll, the CEO IAS Kunal had called for an all-party meeting, which was attended by the representatives of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP).
The opposition pointed out to the CEO that under political pressure, the BLOs are likely to delete several hundred names from the electoral roll of the Mormugao constituency.
The claim was however, rubbished by the BJP representative Keshav Prabhu, who said that the deletion of names has been done as per procedure laid down by the Election Commission of India.
Speaking to the media persons post meeting, GFP vice president Durgadas Kamat said that the opposition has demanded an inquiry into alleged manipulation of electoral roll in the Mormugao constituency.
He also said that of the total 29 BLOs, appointed in the constituency, 21 are from the Power department, which was earlier headed by Mormugao MLA Milind Naik.
“We have full faith in the CEO. He has assured to look into the matter,” Kamat said.
Later, when contacted, Additional CEO Narayan Sawant said that the political parties have been assured that deletion or addition of every name in the electoral roll will be done following due procedure. “We will ensure that proper procedure is followed at every step,” he said.
The month-long special summary revision of electoral rolls of Assembly constituencies had begun from November, with January 15, 2021 as the final publication date.
