Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, June 15:

It’s not just the MLAs and MPs of the ruling party in Odisha, who possess dual voter ID cards in gross violation of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. It has now come to light that even the spouses of some of the public representatives of the BJD, some of whom are also representatives in the three-tier Panchayati Raj system, have the 'double bonanza'.

Sanjay Dasburma : Double Bonanza ! Sanjay Dasburma : Double Bonanza !

Despite the fact that the MLAs and MPs could not have done this blunder unknowingly, the Chief Electorate Office (CEO) has sat pretty instead of taking action against them for violation of law of the land.

Like her husband and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sanjay Das Burma, Sailbala Das Burma too has the rare luxury of being a voter at two different places. Both of them are registered voters at Malud block in Puri and in Kharavela Nagar in Bhubaneswar. While Das Burma is a registered voter in Malud block with Voter ID number KRK 1459098, his wife is registered in the same place with voter ID number KRK 1459114.

Surprisingly though, both of are also voters in Kharabela Nagar in Bhubaneswar as well with ID numbers RXL 0516864 and KLX 3185725 respectively.

Puri MP Pinaki Mishra and his wife Sangita Mishra also have dual voter cards. Pinaki and his wife have registered their name in Nageswar Tangi of Gautam Nagar in Bhubaneswar while they also have voter ID cards in New Delhi.

The Supreme Court lawyer's voter I card number is SJE 0798074 in Delhi while his wife Sangita's number is SJE 0798082.

Pinaki Misra: From state capital to national capital Pinaki Misra: From state capital to national capital

Similarly, Independent MLA from Satyabadi Umakant Samantray and his wife Subhranti Samantray have dual voter ID cards. While the MLA possesses a voter card at Ghatikia in Bhubaneswar bearing number MDT 1396555, he has also a voter card in his village Dochhian bearing number OR/08/057/156337.

His wife Subhranti has a voter ID card at Ghatikia with the number MDT 1396068 and at Dochhian with the number KRK 2132793.
Interestingly, Ms Samantray is a Zilla Parishad member from Kanas in Puri district.

While Section 33 (1) of the Orissa Zilla Parishad Act, 1991 says a person shall not be eligible to stand for election under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 6 if he is not ordinarily residing within the Parishad area, Subhranti has got elected even though he resides at Ghatikia most of the times.

The CEO, Odisha has glossed over all this notwithstanding the fact it is all there in black and white on its own website. In the run up to the last election, it had made a big song and dance about the fact that it had deleted 8.84 lakh names, which figured at two different places, from electoral rolls.

But it has not yet bothered to explain how the ruling party MPs. MLAs and even their spouses escaped the scalpel.