Click to play videoNew Delhi: It's believed that each of us has a spirit double, an exact copy lurking somewhere in the world. And CEO Viplav Communications Pvt. Ltd, Pallav Pandey says that at least for the Gujarat elections, that's partly true.
Pandey has downloaded a voters list from the Election Commission's website and has run it through a software he has developed, uncovering huge numbers of multiple entries on the list.
"In India, Veena and Beena can be counted as the same name. Just the spellings differ. Pallav Kumar Pandey and Pallav Pandey are the same. V K Sethi and Vasant Kumar Sethi are the same person. But they are separate entries on the electoral roll. Our software weeds them out based on father's name, age, location and other criteria. We can claim up to 90 per cent accuracy," says he
People can be duplicated in the same polling booth, in neighbouring polling booths, in different Assembly constituencies and so on.
A preliminary check for Bhuj alone threw up more than 5,000 duplicates — many with the same I-Card number and incredibly, listed one below the other.
The Election Commission does have a similar software, but Pandey claims there are reasons why it isn't as effective.
"The software is made by the Election Commission of India, but the state Election Commissions are responsible for implementing it and they don't always have the computer literacy and resources to do it," Pandey says.
"Grass root level electoral officers can easily be swayed by vested interests to allow duplication. Even the agency that gives out electoral cards is paid commission on per card basis. So even if they spot duplicates, they don't blow the whistle," he adds.
Using special string theory algorithms, Pandey's software takes close to eight hours to scan through a list of 1 lakh voters and needs two months to scan the entire state's list.
As Gujarat goes to the polls on December 11, these 5,000 odd duplicate votes could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Is the Election Commission listening?
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