Panaji, Jan 9: Kargil War veteran and South Goa Lok Sabha MP Capt Viriato Fernandes has received a notice from the Election Commission (EC) under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, asking him to appear with documents to prove his identity, triggering criticism and an official explanation from the state’s chief electoral officer.
Goa Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjay Goel on Tuesday blamed the Booth Level Officer (BLO) for a lapse that led to the automatic generation of the notice and said a showcause notice would be issued to the official concerned.
“I’m told that in his enumeration form, the MP did not mention the Assembly constituency and the part number of the 2002 electoral roll, on the basis of which mapping is done. The BLO should have scrutinised this and sought the details from him. It was a lapse on the BLO’s part,” Goel said.
Explaining the process, the CEO said the system automatically generates notices for unmapped voters. “At that stage too, it was missed. It’s not too late. The details will be sought from the MP and his name will not be deleted,” he added.
Fernandes said the notice was surprising, especially since candidates contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, including him, were subjected to the highest level of scrutiny by the EC.
“If an MP can be subjected to this scrutiny, one wonders about the state of a common man. It confirms concerns raised by opposition parties and NGOs and citizens about the SIR being carried out by the EC to delete names of legitimate voters and prevent them from participating in the democratic process,” he said.
The Lok Sabha MP said he has been voting since 1989 and travelled to Goa multiple times from his military postings during his 26-year tenure in the Indian Navy to exercise his franchise.
The EC notice received by Fernandes stated that there was “no match or likely incorrect match with the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR” and asked him to appear before the electoral authority on January 27, 2026, between 9 am and 12 pm, along with original documents prescribed by the Commission to retain his name in the final electoral roll.
