343 Voter ID Cards Found on Narmada Riverbank in MP; Congress Demands FIR and Probe

As many as 343 voter identity cards were found abandoned on the banks of the Narmada river in Mandleshwar town of Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district on Sunday, prompting the opposition Congress to demand an FIR and an impartial inquiry into the matter.

According to officials, residents came across the cards while taking part in a cleanliness drive along the riverbank and informed the local administration. Shortly afterwards, a video showing the recovered cards began circulating widely on social media.

Preliminary information suggests the cards belong to the Rau assembly constituency in neighbouring Indore district. Officials, however, said this was being verified and that a clear picture would emerge only after the investigation progresses.

Mandleshwar Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Shweta Shukla said the voter ID cards were found during the cleanliness drive along the Narmada. The revenue team has seized the cards, and the police station in-charge has been directed to investigate the matter, she said, adding that the police had also received a complaint from the Congress.

District Congress president Ravi Naik, accompanied by party workers, approached the Mandleshwar police station and submitted a complaint seeking registration of an FIR. Naik questioned the functioning of the Election Commission and demanded action against those responsible. The party also sought a search operation in the river, involving divers, to look for any more voter ID cards.

"The Congress will gherao the police station if an FIR is not registered," Naik said.

The incident has raised questions about how such a large number of identity documents came to be discarded on a public riverbank. No official has so far offered an explanation, and the police have not named anyone in connection with the recovery.

The Election Commission has not issued a statement on the matter. Under the electoral system, a voter's Electors Photo Identity Card, commonly known as the voter ID or EPIC, is issued to every registered elector. When electoral rolls are revised, or when electors shift residence, die or are deleted from the rolls, their old cards may cease to be valid. Possession of an identity document belonging to another person, or its misuse at a polling station, is a matter for scrutiny under election law, though a card alone cannot be used to cast a vote without matching details on the electoral roll.

Investigators will need to establish whether the recovered cards belonged to genuine electors, whether they had been superseded by newer documents, and how they were transported to Mandleshwar. Until those findings are available, the circumstances surrounding the recovery remain unexplained.

The matter comes amid continuing public debate over the integrity of electoral rolls, an issue that has attracted political attention at the national level in recent months. Electoral authorities have maintained that safeguards in the roll revision process are adequate and that complaints are examined when specific evidence is presented.

The Congress has said it will press for a transparent inquiry, while the administration has indicated that the seized cards and the complaint will be examined in accordance with procedure. Officials did not specify a timeframe for the investigation.