MUMBAI: Thousands of Mumbaikars, including several prominent personalities, we-re left vote-less on Thursday after their names were found missing from the electoral rolls. Many of them had cast their ballot in both the general and assembly elections in 2009 and carried valid voter identity cards. Others found their names on the deleted list of voters and were debarred this season.
The prominent citizens who could not participate in the election included HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, and the chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange Ashishkumar Chauhan. "I went to vote along with my wife and son. But we were shocked to find our names missing from the list," said Parekh.
The BJP's candidate from Mumbai N-E Kirit Somaiya threatened to file a complaint at Mulund police station on Friday for "criminal negligence and conspiracy" after, he claimed, 1 lakh names had been either deleted or had simply gone missing across Ghatkopar, Mulund and Bhandup. AAP's Meera Sanyal said, "In south Mumbai, our party has found over 21,000 names missing."
The fiasco was a replay of the mess earlier this month in Pune and Nagpur, where too the electoral rolls were riddled with errors. Such was the commonness of the problem there that even Pune police commissioner Satish Mathur could not vote. And this, after the Election Commission revised the rolls in the state eight months ago.
In Mumbai, the glitches caused widespread frustration and dejection. They also perhaps diminished the percentage of the heartening voter turnout witnessed in a city that is usually known for its apathy in poll season. In several places, members of the same family found names missing; some were assigned different polling booths.
Elsewhere, first names were bunched with middle and last names, or misspelt beyond recognition. Disappointed by the anaemic supplementary list, a few voters checked the 'mother list' and reported the serial number to the poll officers, after which their names were spotted. Others simply went back dejected.
In Mohammed Ali Road, Dongri and Nagpada, residents complained of names missing in bulk. About 750 voters had voted in 2009 from Kashmiri Building at J B Shah Marg in Mumbadevi; this time, just 35 of the names were on the list. At nearby Tawakkal Manzil, 40 voters were dropped. "There seems to be a conspiracy to deprive valid voters of their constitutional right," alleged MLA Amin Patel.
None of the eight family members of Moosa Siddiqui (75), who lives near Zakaria Masjid, Mohammed Ali Road, could vote. "Last time we voted with the same voter ID but today we are returning home disappointed," he said.
Wadala, Bandra and Khar had bulk misses as well. At 11am, police resorted to lathi-charge after voters from Alka building near SIWS College argued with cops and EC officials amid allegations of bogus voting. Around 300 people protested outside the Wadala EC office and demanded a re-election. In Bandra (West), angry voters at R V Technical School demanded that the polling booth be closed down.
In Khar, a judge of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court and his wife found their names missing from the list. Al-Nasser Zakaria, a professor of political science, was detained by the police after he tried to take up their case with election officials. Also in Khar, media veteran Pradeep Guha, who has been a "conscientious voter" since four decades, could not vote. He first went to Lakshmi Narayan School booth in Khar, where he was told his name was not on the list. He was then referred to a booth nearby, where he got the same response. "And all this happened despite me carrying my voter's identity card," a disappointed Guha said.
In south Mumbai, Arun Arora, chairman of Edvance Pre-Schools, who has been voting since 35 years, was anguished to find his name not there on the rolls. "We approached the authorities for a change of address from Tenerife, Malabar Hill, to Somerset in the Sophia College Lane in December 2013 and received a slip confirming acceptance of our request. Now our names do not appear in the new list and have been deleted from the old one. We feel robbed of the fundamental right to vote," he said.
Colaba resident Subhash Motwani managed to get his mother to vote in spite of her name not being in the voters' list thanks to the guidelines TOI published on April 24. He posted these pointers online to help others in a similar situation.
Matunga resident Dushyant Mehta (45) had postponed his foreign holiday so the family could vote but was disappointed to find his name missing. "I spent two hours at various booths trying to find my name but could not,'' said Mehta. At Sahakar Nagar Municipal School in Wadala, the queue of people whose names were missing was longer than those who could vote.
Politicians alleged foul play behind the sudden deletions. Somaiya complained that several voters were dropped from the list in Mulund-Ghatkopar. "There are many families in which the names of wives and sons or daughters have been deleted. Election officials did not follow the proper procedure of issuing a 14-day notice and doing spot surveys before deleting names abruptly," he said. He alleged that there were complaints from 50,000 voters whose names were deleted in Mulund East, West and in Bhandup. Also 50,000 more names were missing from Ghatkopar, he claimed.
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