Voter I-cards on sale ! Congress Buying in Wholesale

Harish Chandola/Dimapur

Would you like to go and vote in Nagaland Assembly elections next month? If you do, go and buy a voter photo identity card in the State, where a massive illegal market in voter cards is thriving.

Friday night, someone brought 83 cards for sale to Mrs Huska Sumi, wife of the newly established state Janata Dal (United) president. The offer price was Rs 3,000 a card, negotiable. Mrs Sumi rejected the bargain. The ruling Congress is, however, reported to be buying the cards wholesale.

This is the first time that voter photo identity cards have been issued in the State. A deluge of complaints about illegal sale of I cards and heavily manipulated electoral lists has inundated the Election Commission in Delhi in the last few days.

To look into the issue, the Commission sent its adviser K J Rao and two other officials to Dimapur and Kohima four days back. After a two-day investigation, they cancelled the publication of electoral rolls of four constituencies, the largest in the State, because of major anomalies.

In the Dimapur constituency, a political party examined 500 voter I-cards and found 480 fake. Names of 100 males of next-door Karbi Anglong district of Assam were shown as voters of Dimapur.

Some voter cards showed men as women and women as men. Names and photos in others did not match. Some had several cards issued to them, with faces in various poses and the same women in different hairstyles.

Fathers' names were incorrect. President of the Sema community Vitokhe was made a voter of another constituency and former Minister K L Chishi was shown as his father, incorrectly.

It would be impossible to hold free and fair elections with such incorrect lists and cards, the Opposition parties, including the BJP, have stated. Some parties want the elections to be postponed till the time the new lists and cards are prepared. They are also demanding that the polls be held under President's Rule.

Others favour voting on the basis of any identity card, except the voter's. Some argue that there would be little chance of impersonation in villages, where people know each other. The problem of identification at polling booths would certainly be difficult in towns and cities.