By: Gurvinder.SinghLUDHIANA: A draft electoral roll for Ludhiana East featured a photograph of revolutionary freedom fighter Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh against an ordinary voter’s name, sparking sharp criticism over the accuracy and verification of local election machinery.The error appeared beside the entry for voter Aman Kumar in Gagandeep Colony within the draft roll published on Aug 13, 2026. Former Ludhiana East MLA and District Congress Committee (Urban) president Sanjay Talwar uncovered the discrepancy and challenged the integrity of multi-tiered oversight involving booth-level officers, supervisors, electoral registration officers, and the district election officer.“If a photo of a member from the same family had been pasted against a voter’s name, it might have been understandable,” Talwar said. “But how can the photograph of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh appear on the draft electoral roll and go unnoticed and get published?”Talwar linked the lapse to wider concerns raised by Rahul Gandhi of the Congress regarding voter list irregularities, questioning how many undetected errors remained in the system.District authorities issued a clarification stating that the incorrect image was inherited from a previous electoral roll and was carried over into the Aug draft. Officials confirmed the record has since been amended and that the corrected final roll will be published on Oct 12.Talwar countered that officials acted only after he exposed the issue publicly. “When we raised an objection, statements started coming that the error had been corrected in the final electoral roll,” he said. Deputy commissioner Himanshu Jain, as district election officer, confirmed the resolution following a review with the relevant electoral registration officer. “The mistake was pushed from the previous electoral roll. However, it has been corrected in the final electoral roll,” Jain said.In a post on X, Ludhiana MP and former Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too flagged the discrepancy.
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