Prithviraj Chavan’s staff in soup

Former CM’s close aide has multiple entries in voter list; Chavan says applied for removal of names

Mumbai: The BJP has accused personal staff of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of voting multiple times after multiple entries of their names have been found in the voters list of the South Karad Assembly constituency. Chavan, however, has said that he has found over 6,000 duplicate names in his constituency and he is planning to move to court over the issue.

“We found that Gajanan Avalkar, the Personal Assistant (PA) of Prithviraj Chavan, Avalkar’s wife and brother, have their names in the voter list twice. They are registered as voters in Vathar village as well as in Karad,” said Mohan Jadhav, a BJP worker from neighbouring Saidapur village.

Jadhav had worked with Chavan for several years in the past.

“Part 295 of the voters’ list of the 260-Karad assembly constituency has an entry in the name of Gajanan Shankar Avalkar (Age 63) with sr. no. 1359, while name of his wife Sangita Gajanan Avalkar (Age 56) is on sr. no. 1358 and his brother’s name Jayprakash Shankar Avalkar (Age 49) is with sr. no. 717. While, part 127 of the voters’ list of the same constituency again has their names as Gajanan Shankar Avalkar (Age 62) with sr. no. 573, Sangita Gajanan Avalkar (Age 54) with sr. no. 574 and Jayprakash Shankar Avalkar (Age 48) is with sr. no. 425,” Jadhav said.

He also accused Avalkar of purposefully registering his name at multiple places to facilitate multiple voting and asked Chavan to explain whether he has blessed such fraud in the voters’ list.

“While Chavan was the CM Avalkar had great influence on the district administration and using that influence he had even made one BLO resign. That is the reason why his name is still there on two voting booths of the constituency and he has voted in both the booths,” Jadhav said.

Jadhav also accused Avalkar of using forged or bogus documents with registering himself twice in the voters’ list.

When contacted, Chavan was forthcoming over the issue. “This is a simple case of half work done by the administration,” he said. Avalkar earlier stayed at Vathar and hence had his name in the list of that village. He registered his name in the list of Karad when he moved to the city. “He had given an application to remove his name from the old list. However, the administration doesn’t seem to have done that,” Chavan told ‘The Perfect Voice’.