CHENNAI: Most political parties on Thursday raised the issue of non-deletion of the names of dead voters from electoral rolls and suggested that the ECI could delete the names by obtaining the list from local bodies and revenue department instead of verifying it through circumlocutory means. They also raised issues like photo mismatch, double entries, deletion of genuine voters, the need for giving identical electoral rolls to political parties and the presiding officers etc.
These issues were raised during a meeting of all registered political parties chaired by the Chief Electoral Officer at the secretariat, ahead of the special summary revision of the rolls with reference to January 1, 2025 as the qualifying date for enrolling eligible voters. The revision begins on October 29 and the final rolls will be published on January 6, 2025.
DMK organisation secretary RS Bharathi told reporters that the ECI seemed not to heed to the concerns expressed by his party to remove the shortcomings in the rolls in the past.
Even in the Lok Sabha election, the names of dead voters were present. Further, there is a huge difference between the electoral rolls given to the political parties and the rolls given to the presiding officers.
D Jayakumar (AIADMK) said ahead of every summary revision, the ECI conducts all-party meetings seeking suggestions but the shortcomings continue. For example — photo mismatch, double entry of voters in different places, non-deletion of dead voters leading to impersonation on polling day and missing of genuine voters from the rolls persist.
Jayakumar also pointed out that copies of the rolls given to political parties in January differ from the list given to the presiding officers just ahead of elections.
Karu Nagarajan (BJP) said deleting names of voters without any reason is also a concern. “Though the ECI appeals for 100% polling, it is elusive because of the faulty electoral rolls. For example, the names of the deceased son of Saidai Duraiswamy and the late agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan are still in the electoral rolls,” he said.
GR Ravindranath (CPI) said the first-time eligible voters should be enrolled by issuing the necessary forms among the Plus One and Plus Two students so that their names would not be missed later.