Panaji, Mar 19 (IANS): While the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) allege that the migrants staying in ‘Lala Ki Basti’ and other slum areas help politicians to win elections, the Chief Electoral Officer has said that there will be no chance of ‘double voting’ this time.
The coastal state will go to poll on May 7, in the third phase of Lok Sabha general elections for two seats, North and South.
The RGP is against the ‘double voting’ allegedly done by migrants from Karnataka and Maharashtra staying in the slum areas of Goa.
RGP has one MLA in the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly.
Goa Chief Electoral Officer Ramesh Verma has ruled out possibilities of ‘double voting’ by migrants during Lok Sabha polls, on account of neighbouring districts of Karnataka and Maharashtra will also poll on the same day along with the coastal state.
“There will be no complaints of such (double voting) this time as Goa along with neighbouring districts of Karnataka and Maharashtra will also poll in the third phase on May 7,” Verma said, adding that his officer will keep a check on such activities.
Talking to IANS, RGP founder and General Secretary Vishwesh Naik said that there are still almost one lakh voters in Goa, who also have voting cards in their native states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
“In the last couple of years, we could cancel around twenty-five thousand election cards of migrants who also had election cards at their native place. Most of them are from Karnataka,” Naik said.
He said that their teams from all the constituencies of the coastal state identified the migrants and complained to the appropriate authorities to cancel their voting cards.
“Fearing the electoral loss, the government is now taking self-declarations from migrants that they will not vote at two places. This is how they are hindering us from taking our movement ahead,” Naik said.
“These migrants are staying in slums like ‘lala ki basti, Moti Dongor, Shahpur, Bablyachi Khali, and more in many constituencies. Politicians are making their use for voting purposes and these people are taking away our traditional business, which is hijacked by them,” Naik said.
“I am sure there are still around one lakh migrants, who have voting also at their native places. Now, our ministers and MLAs in power will restrain them from going to their native places to cast their votes and will force them to vote in their favour. This is how they win,” Naik said.
He said that most of the migrants come from Karnataka, who are into all types of businesses in Goa.
As of March 16, in terms of voter demographics, Goa has a total of 1,173,016 voters, with 57,7958 in North Goa and 59,5058 in South Goa. Among these, there are 56,8501 male voters and 60,4515 female voters.