Haryana Congress on Tuesday alleged that verification of ward-wise electoral rolls of the Municipal Corporation, Panchkula, has revealed over 17,000 duplicate entries, with more than 8,000 voters appearing twice or thrice.Haryana Congress chief Rao Narender Singh and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala released the list of such voters, including their names and addresses.In a complaint to State Election Commissioner Devinder Singh Kalyan, the Congress said the figure of 8,543 voters having multiple entries was arrived at on the basis of independent, limited research carried out within constrained time.It added that the total number of voters across Panchkula municipal wards is approximately 2.8 lakh, and there is reason to apprehend that the actual duplication could run into several thousands more.The party alleged in its complaint that duplication of this scale “is neither a clerical accident nor an inadvertent error,” and claimed the magnitude of the issue makes it impossible without “active connivance” of officials responsible for preparing, revising and finalising the voter list, as well as the ruling BJP.It further alleged a “deliberate attempt to steal the elections” by the ruling BJP in Haryana.The Congress demanded striking off duplicate entries, publication of a corrected ward-wise voter list, and a detailed investigation into how such entries were made.It also sought registration of an FIR against outgoing Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, mayoral candidate Shyam Lal Bansal, and all 20 BJP candidates contesting from the 20 wards of the Municipal Corporation, Panchkula, alleging they are direct beneficiaries of the alleged manipulation.Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Rao Narender Singh said the alleged conspiracy to “steal votes” by the BJP government had been exposed. He alleged that similar practices were being repeated in Panchkula, calling it a “blind hunger for power” with “no moral boundaries”.He also referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s earlier remarks on alleged vote theft in a press conference in Delhi, claiming the Haryana Congress uncovered the irregularities after nearly a month of examining voter lists and that the discrepancies could be larger.Surjewala said the BJP was aware that people had “turned against them” and alleged that the party had again resorted to “vote theft”. He added that the allegations were based on data from the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana.He further alleged that such irregularities could not have taken place without collusion between officials responsible for voter list preparation and the BJP government.When contacted, State Election Commissioner Devinder Singh Kalyan said the Congress memorandum had been sent to the Deputy Commissioner, Panchkula, for verification, after which further action would be taken.