Vakula Devi (name changed to protect privacy) had stayed in the Attapur area of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for decades. Eventually, her four children got married, had their own families, and shifted out of the parental home. Once age caught up, Devi also shifted to her daughter’s home near Patancheru located in the north-western end of Hyderabad. Her family home has been rented out for five years now.
During the election season in Telangana that concluded earlier this month, electoral staff deployed for the Rajendranagar constituency, under which Attapur falls, came knocking at the door of the family home. They enquired with the tenant if Vakula Devi, now over 80 years old, needed home voting facility offered by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to super senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
They had no inkling that the woman had shifted, long ago, to a different address which fell under the purview of another constituency. The staff also learnt about the death of another woman named Bharati Paul, a resident of Hyderguda, during their effort to enrol super senior citizens for home voting. Paul’s and Devi’s names appear even now on the electoral roll of Rajendranagar constituency, along with a number of senior citizens about whose demise the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) learnt only during the drive conducted after the final electoral rolls were published.
