Illustration: NewsPlainly. Not a photograph of the event.
Why it matters
The cards carry Indore addresses, so the voters named on them live about 90 km from where the cards turned up. The find comes amid opposition protests over the Election Commission's revision of voter lists. Until officials say whether the cards are genuine, it is not known whether any voter is affected.
Revenue officials in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district seized 343 voter ID cards on Sunday, 25 October 2026, after volunteers cleaning the Narmada riverbank at Mandleshwar found them, some floating in the water and some lying on the bank. The cards carry addresses in Indore, about 90 km away. The Congress has asked police to register an FIR, while the police say they are first making an inquiry.
None of the officials quoted in the reports has said how the cards got there. The New Indian Express reported that it remains unclear who left them, how they reached the river and whether they are genuine.
How the voter ID cards were found at Mandleshwar
The Free Press Journal reported that members of the Niswarth Seva Group, an Indore organisation, came across the cards during a Narmada cleanliness drive. Residents told the local administration, and a video of the recovered cards spread on social media. Hindustan Times, which carried the report of the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, said it could not independently verify the video.
Officials reached the ghat the same day. According to the Free Press Journal, they included Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Shweta Shukla and Maheshwar tehsildar Kailash Sastya. On the tehsildar’s instructions, a patwari, the village land records official, and the revenue team prepared a spot panchnama, the written record of what was found, and seized all 343 cards.
The addresses on the cards are from the Tilak Nagar area of Indore, the Free Press Journal reported, including Aastha Palace, Akash Nagar and Shraddhapuri. PTI reported that preliminary information links the cards to the Rau Assembly constituency in Indore district. The New Indian Express called them Electoral Photo Identity Cards, or EPICs, the formal name for voter ID cards.
What police and officials have said so far
SDOP Shukla said the revenue team had seized the cards and that the officer in charge of the police station had been told to investigate. She said police had also received the Congress complaint, PTI reported. The Free Press Journal quoted her as saying the cards carried Indore addresses and that information was being sought from the election office concerned and the Indore administration.
Mandleshwar police station in charge Pankaj Tiwari said the Congress had submitted an application and that further legal action would depend on what the investigation finds, the Free Press Journal reported on 25 October. Police and administration officials are looking at whether the cards reached the river through negligence or in some other way, the paper said.
The reports read for this article did not include a statement from the Election Commission of India or from the Indore district election office.
Congress calls it ‘vote theft’ and seeks an FIR
Khargone district Congress president Ravi Naik led party workers to Mandleshwar police station with a complaint. The Free Press Journal reported that they wanted an FIR against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and sat at the station gate after police said action would follow an inquiry. The protest ended once the application was submitted, the paper said.
Naik alleged that the find pointed to “vote theft” and asked for an impartial probe, the Free Press Journal and The New Indian Express reported. According to PTI, he also asked for divers to search the riverbed for more cards and said the party would gherao, or surround, the police station if no FIR was registered.
The New Indian Express reported a further claim from Naik: that the cards show the year 2016, although, he said, the digital card format came in only in 2021. He argued that police did not need a separate inquiry, because entering the EPIC numbers into the system would show at once whether the cards are real. These are his statements; the reports did not carry an official answer to them.
Two districts, two constituencies: where the cards came from and where they surfaced
The cards were found in one district and Lok Sabha seat but appear to belong to voters in another. NewsPlainly put the details from the reports side by side.
| Where the addresses are | Where the cards were found | |
|---|---|---|
| Place | Tilak Nagar area, Indore | Narmada bank, Mandleshwar |
| District | Indore | Khargone |
| Assembly seat | Rau (preliminary information) | Maheshwar |
| Sitting MLA | Madhu Verma, BJP | Rajkumar Mev, BJP |
| Lok Sabha seat | Indore | Khargone (MP Gajendra Singh Patel, BJP) |
Before Madhu Verma, Rau was held by state Congress chief Jitu Patwari, who won it in 2013 and 2018 and lost in 2023, The New Indian Express reported.
Why the voter ID cards find has drawn national attention
The find comes during a national row over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a fresh revision of voter lists. Opposition parties have protested in Delhi and other cities, with some demonstrators calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and an end to the exercise over alleged deletions, Hindustan Times reported. NewsPlainly has reported on the Commission’s reply under the Right to Information (RTI) Act about the SIR software.
The Commission, for its part, has asked states to hold special enrolment drives so eligible voters are on the rolls, and has ordered yearly revisions in states and Union territories where the SIR is over, according to the same report.
It is not the first such find in Madhya Pradesh. In October 2025, hundreds of voter ID cards turned up in the Raja Talab pond in Chhatarpur district during a cleaning drive, and opposition leaders cited it in support of their vote theft claims, The New Indian Express reported.
What is on record and what is still open
On record: 343 cards, counted in an official panchnama; Indore addresses; seized by the revenue team; a police inquiry ordered; a Congress complaint received. Still open, in the reports read: whether the cards are genuine, whether they were issued to real voters still on the rolls, how they travelled about 90 km to the river, and whether police will register an FIR.
Police said they had asked the election office concerned and the Indore administration for information about the cards.
Frequently asked questions
How many voter ID cards were found in the Narmada?
343, according to the spot panchnama prepared by the revenue team at Mandleshwar on 25 October 2026, as reported by the Free Press Journal.
Which constituency do the voter ID cards belong to?
The cards carry addresses in the Tilak Nagar area of Indore. PTI reported that preliminary information links them to the Rau Assembly constituency in Indore district.
Has an FIR been registered?
Not as of the 25 October reports. The Mandleshwar police station in charge said the Congress application was received and further action would depend on the inquiry.
Are the voter ID cards genuine?
That has not been established. The New Indian Express reported it is unclear whether they are genuine; police have sought information from the Indore election office.