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Some citizens who patiently waited in long queues to cast their votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, April 26, in Bengaluru were disheartened to find that their names were either absent or deleted from the electoral rolls — a problem that the city has reported in the previous elections too.
Citizens in Chickpet and Akkipet of Bengaluru Central constituency have alleged that hundreds of names were deleted from the voter list. “Last year during the Assembly election, our names were on the voters’ list and we successfully voted. But, on Friday we came to the booth to vote and were shocked to find our names deleted without verification,” a voter alleged.
“If there are six votes in a family, the names of three to four voters are deleted from the list,” they said, claiming that names of more than a 100 people were deleted from the voters’ list this time.
Sajjan Raj Mehta, trade activist said, “I feel in democracy, the basic right to vote denied illegally is a crime and citizen’s right to vote needs to be provided at any cost if valid ID cards are available.”
Complaints of missing names from voters’ lists surfaced in a polling booth in Indiranagar too, as a woman was seen making frantic calls and approaching the polling officials in a huff after she found that her mother’s name had gone missing.
While such incidents were reported in the different areas of the city, citizens were frustrated with the lack of response from officials. “Each official we approached simply passed us on to some other officials. There seemed to be a reluctance to take ownership and address our concerns,” said Punitha H., a resident of BTM Layout.
Additionally, there were cases where voters’ names were misspelled, leading to lengthy waits as they sought rectification.
