BHOPAL: A total of 343 voter identity cards, all bearing addresses in Indore, were found abandoned along the Narmada riverbank at Mandleshwar Ghat in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district on Sunday.
The opposition Congress has demanded that an FIR be registered and an impartial investigation conducted.
Members of an organisation conducting a cleanliness drive at Mandleshwar Ghat spotted cards floating in the water and lying along the riverbank. Residents collected the cards and alerted the administration. A video showing the cards soon went viral on social media.
Preliminary information suggests that the cards belong to the Rau Assembly constituency in Indore district, about 90 km away. The addresses listed on the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) include Tilak Nagar and Aastha Palace in Indore. It remains unclear how the cards reached the river, who dumped them and whether they are genuine.
News reports from Khargone said most of the 343 cards found in and around the Narmada on Sunday pertain to Rau, where state Congress chief Jitu Patwari won in 2013 and 2018 before losing it in 2023.
Mandleshwar Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Shweta Shukla said a revenue team had seized the cards and the police station in-charge had been directed to investigate. She confirmed that the police had received a complaint from the Congress.
Congress district president Ravi Naik, along with block president Himmat Singh Patel and other party workers, submitted the complaint at Mandleshwar police station. Naik questioned the Election Commission's functioning and warned that the party would gherao the police station if a case was not registered.
Pointing to the dates on the cards, Naik alleged that they bore the year 2016, although the digital card format had been introduced only in 2021. He questioned how such cards could have been issued earlier and described the discovery as clear evidence of “vote theft”.
Naik alleged that the police and administration were under pressure and were insisting on a preliminary inquiry before taking action. He argued that a separate investigation was unnecessary, as entering the EPIC numbers into the system would establish whether the cards were genuine. The Congress has also sought the deployment of divers to search the riverbed for more cards.
Similar discoveries have been reported elsewhere. In Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of voter ID cards were found in Raja Talab pond during a cleaning exercise in October 2025. The opposition cited the discovery in support of its claims of vote theft.
