Thousands of voters’ names go missing

Mumbai: Thousands of Mumbaikars, including several prominent personalities, were 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. 
GOING VOTE-LESS IN MUMBAI 
    Thousands of citizens, including prominent names like HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, lawyer Ram Jethmalani and BSE chairman Ashishkumar Chauhan found their names missing from the voters' list 
    Many of them had voted in the 2009 LS & assembly polls & had valid voter I-cards 
    Some found their names had been deleted, thus debarring them from voting this time Politicians allege foul play behind deletion of names from electoral rolls 
    Thousands of Mumbaikars could not vote on Thursday because their name were found missing from the electoral rolls. In several parts of the city, voters were confounded because first names were bunched with middle and last names, or just 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 people 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. Angry voters at Bandra's R V Technical School demanded that the polling booth be closed down. 
    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 achange 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 despite her name not being on the voters' list thanks to the pointers TOI published on April 24. He posted these pointers online to help others in a similar situation. 
    Matunga resident Dushyant Mehta had postponed his foreign holiday so the family could vote but was upset to find his name missing. 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. Kirit 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," the BJP leaders 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. 
    (With inputs from Piyush Pandey, Linah Baliga, Swati Deshpande, Partha Sinha, Somit Sen, Mohammed Wajihuddin, Bhavika Jain, Vijay Singh, Vijay V Singh, Shibu Thomas, Sandhya Nair) WAY OFF THE MARK 
The voting process became a testing time for numerous Mumbaikars as they stepped out to exercise their franchise. Many names were found missing from the electoral rolls or misspelt on them. What were the reasons for these problems? And what should be done to avoid them in time for the Assembly elections in the state? 
I came to Mumbai just to vote: Ram Jethmalani 
    Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani who travelled to Mumbai from Delhi to exercise franchise, had to return without the electoral stain on the forefinger. His name, he said, could not be found on the voters' list. Initially hassled about the inability to exercise his "democratic right" in his constituency of Mumbai South, the noted jurist reconciled to the fact later. "I came to Mumbai a day before specifically to cast my vote. I will take action against the Election Commission. I will write to them. My cook's name was there on the list. Mine wasn't," he said. "But one vote, I support, will not change the formation of the government."— Swati Deshpande 
Many dead people still on voters' list 
    The incompleteness of the electoral rolls' revision was evidenced by the prevalence of the names of deceased people on them. Mani Patel, a resident of Bandra, said her brother died last year, after which she "filled out a form and submitted the death certificate to EC to delete the name from the voters' list". But it was still there. Similar cases abounded. Manohar Vichare died 11 years ago, but his name was on the voters' list in Virar. John Rodricks, who lived in Sterling Apartments, and Rose Gonsalves, who lived in Ann Abode, were two of the many names not deleted in Bandra. — Linah Baliga Professor detained from poll official's office 
    Apolitical science professor was detained for hours by Khar police from the office of a returning officer when he tried to find out why some voters' names were missing from the electoral rolls. Al-Nasser Zakaria, who teaches at a suburban college, was confined for "disturbing the poll process," the police claimed. But the professor explained that he was just helping an HC judge and his wife. The couple had come from Aurangabad to cast their vote in Khar. When they could not find their names on the list, their son, who is an acquaintance of Zakaria, sought help. Zakaria went to the returning officer's office, but was detained while trying to enter it. — Vijay V Singh Bandra residents' hopes raised & dashed 
    Around 3.30pm on Thursday, a text message did the rounds in North-Central constituency that gave hope to people who could not vote because their names were not on the electoral rolls. The text said an 'Absent, Shifted Residence or Dead' (ASD) list had been circulated to the polling booths in Bandra (W), whichcontained 18,000 names of voters who were not present in the area during the electoral rolls' revision. It added that those unable to vote could revisit their polling booth and search for their name in the ASD list. Many, including Bandra resident Anslem Pereira, took the advice, only to be disappointed again. — Linah BaligaPROBLEMS THEY FACED 
CHANGE IN POLLING BOOTH 
| Names were shifted from one polling booth to another without intimation. Many voters had always voted in one booth but could not find their name there this time. Some of them ran between polling booths until their name was found 
MISSING COMPLETELY | Complaints of voters not finding their name on any list were not uncommon. Many demanded to see the electoral 'mother roll', but these were not available at all polling booths 
NAMES DELETED | Names were found deleted from the voters' list. Normally, deletions happen in cases of change of address or death. But, even people staying at the same address for years found their names in the deleted list 
MISSPELLINGS & MIX-UPS | 
    Voters had a 
    tough time 
    finding their 
    name 
    because they 
    had either 
    been wrongly spelt or mixed up. In many cases, first names were spliced with middle or last names, or interchanged 
REASONS EC guidelines require 900-1,500 voters be assigned per polling booth. If in a registration drive, the number of voters increases, some names are shifted from one booth to another 
    There is a mismatch between the data given by voters and the data compiled by the EC. This explains the misspellings and the mix-up in the names 
SUGGESTIONS | EC should keep voters in the loop about changes in polling booths. It should create databases that can be easily accessed and searched. More outlets should be provided for lodging complaints Election commission reacts 
An EC official said: "It is the responsibility of citizens to register themselves as voters as per the Representation of the People Act. Block officers are a proactive arrangement of the state. People can't blame the machinery. Block officers visited every house while updating the list and have done panchnamas after finding houses locked and after inquiring with neighbours. Deleted names were uploaded on the website for objections." 
Suburban collector Shekhar Channe said merely 400-500 names were missing in each of the four constituencies in the suburban region. 
I went to vote along with my wife and son. But we were shocked to find our names missing from the list, so we could not vote. But my servant, who hails from Bihar, was lucky to have his name on the list 
Deepak Parekh | 
HDFC CHAIRMAN 
Disenfranchised. I am keen to find out what process was followed in deleting someone's electoral right. The PIL seems to be a good route to take 
Somasekhar Sundaresan | CORPORATE LAWYER 
I run a firm with 200 employees and I granted them leave so they could vote. But I did not find my own name or that of my grandparents on the list — Pratik Gupta | WORLI 
    Fifty people, 
    including me, from Srishti Apartments did not find our names on the list despite having voter ID cards and despite voting the last time 
Shashi Shrivastav | 
MIRA ROAD 
    As we were talking to EC 
    officials about our missing names, my daughter angrily left the room. The door accidentally hit a policeman. He asked her to pay a fine of Rs 1,200 
Dr Pankaj Naik | NEHRU NAGAR, KURLA 
    I am in Mumbai since 29 years and 
    at my current place of residence for over four years. My wife and I could not vote as our names were missing from the list. The disappointment was compounded because the polling booth was next door — Ashishkumar Chauhan | MD, BSE | MALABAR HILL 
I am 76 and have voted in almost every election in the last 50 years. This time my name and that of my wife was missing. If EC officials are deleting names, isn't it their responsibility to inform us — Bhupatram Shah | SINDHI COLONY, SION