BHOPAL: The victory margins of 13 Madhya Pradesh ministers are outstripped by the number of voters deleted from the poll lists in their constituencies between January and July, according to an analysis of the2014 poll results. Overall, 24 lakh names were deleted from the voter lists of the total 230 assembly seats. At the same time, more than 10.69 lakh new voters were added for the poll scheduled in November-December. Till July 31, the total number of voters stands at over 4.94 crore.
Cabinet ministers Jayant Malaiya, Narottam Mishra, Gourishankar Bisen, Rustam Singh, Umashankar Gupta, Yashodhara Raje, Maya Singh and Bhupendra Singh figure in the list of 13 ministers. Finance minister Jayant Malaiya won from Damoh by 4,953 votes - much less than the number of voter names deleted (7,184). The list shows Mishra from Datia (11,697 win margin/12,712 deleted voters), Bisen from Balaghat (2,500 votes/8,718 deleted voters), Gupta from Bhopal South West (18,198 votes/25,820 deleted voters), Raje from Shivpuri (11,145 votes/21,928 deleted voters), Singh from Gwalior East (1,147 votes/14,733 deleted voters) and Bhupendra from Khurai (6,084 votes/17,171 deleted voters) on a sticky wicket.
Ministers of State Surendra Patwa, Lalita Yadav, Viswas Sarang, Surya Prakash Meena and Balkrishna Patidar are the other members in the list.But, the biggest surprise is BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya. His winning margin of 12,216 votes from Dr Ambedkar Nagar-Mhow is less than the total 19,309 voters deleted from the electoral list.And it’s not only the BJP ministers who have to worry about. Congress chief whip in Vidhan Sabha Ramniwas Rawat won by 2,149 votes in Vijaypur, whereas 8,609 names were expunged this time.
Giving company to Rawat are State Congress working president Jeetu Patwari and party leaders Sunderlal Tiwari and Govind Singh Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi, who has been alleging existence of around 60 lakh “fake voters”, told The Sunday Standard that the list of 13 ministers vindicated his party’s stand on the bogus voters.