People's Democracy

                AP: Two Lakh Voters’ Names Missing         

M Venugopala Rao

IN the first phase of polling in Andhra Pradesh that took place on April 20, in fifty per cent of the Lok Sabha and assembly segments in the state, voters with photo identity cards at several places found to their dismay that their names were missing or scored out in the voters’ lists. They expressed strong resentment and protested in vain but the officers at the respective polling booths pleaded inability to allow them to exercise their franchise. The angry voters held dharnas and protest demonstrations at several places.

At least two lakh voters were deprived of their right to vote because of this irresponsible deletion of their names from the voters’ lists, according to unofficial estimates. At some of the polling booths, the electronic voting machines did not function properly and they were rectified later and polling continued. There was strong criticism from the opposition parties against deletion of eligible voters from the voters’ lists. The Telugu Desam Party and chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, who kept quite on the polling date, reacted the next day in the face of criticism from the opposition parties. The chief minister blamed the Congress for giving names en bloc for removal of bogus voters and the Election Commission for deletion of names of eligible voters from the electoral rolls. The CPI(M) had pointed out that it had complained earlier that along with bogus names, names of eligible voters were also being deleted and the same has been proved true during the polling. To cover up these defects in revision of electoral rolls, the CM was trying to blame the opposition for the blunder of deletion of names of eligible voters from the electoral rolls, the CPI(M) criticised. Since the voters got themselves photographed at the notified centres and their photo identity cards were delivered at their homes, there is no justification in deleting their names from the electoral rolls.