CHENNAI: Despite possessing valid voter identity cards and having lived in the same address for several years, many people across the city claimed on Friday that they were excluded from the electoral roll and consequently failed to exercise their franchise in the general elections.
Among those affected was actor Soori. When he reached the polling booth in Valasaravakkam along with his wife, the officials told him that his name was missing from the list. “This is disheartening. They are claiming that my name is missing.... I don’t know whose mistake is it,” he said. Soori’s wife was, however, allowed to vote in the same booth.
Meanwhile, supporters of BJP alleged lapses in the roll preparation, claiming that “thousands of voters” who were unlikely to vote for the state’s ruling party were selectively removed from the lists. BJP candidate for Chennai Central Vinoj P Selvam alleged that more than one lakh names were likely to have been removed from the list, and demanded a repoll.
Around 12.30 pm, a group of voters from a few polling stations, including St. George Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School and CSI Bains School, under Chennai Central constituency, visited the office of the Returning Officer at Shenoy Nagar, demanding that they be allowed to cast their votes.
Furthermore, the polling stations in Purasawalkam, Thousand Lights, Sholinganallur, and other areas witnessed heated arguments between poll officers and voters, whose names were found to be deleted. Andrew Thomsan, a resident of Kilpauk, said he had cast his vote at CSI Bains School in the 2019 and 2021 elections. “I have been residing at the same address for 23 years. But, out of the five members in my family, the names of three have been deleted from the voter list,” he alleged.
Similar complaints surfaced at polling stations in Chennai South and Chennai North constituencies as well. Murugeshwari, a first-time voter, said while her name was not on the electoral roll, her grandmother and mother were able to cast their votes at Semmencherry. Shakunthala, a resident of Perambur for three years, said she was shocked to see her name missing from the roll while all her other family members’ names were on the roll. The same issue was reported in Arunthathiyar Nagar in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar too.
Instances of over 200 people’s names missing from the voter’s list were reported at two polling stations in Kadayanallur. Deputy Superintendent of Police G Venkadesan, Puliyangudi, pacified the voters and requested them to submit a petition to the returning officer. Technical glitches were recorded in the electronic voting machines in many places of both constituencies. However, they were resolved within an hour. At Keezha Kattoor polling station in Alangulam assembly sector, the poll timing had to be extended by two hours due to a technical glitch.
Officials deny mass deletions
A senior election official from Chennai said mass deletion of names could not have occurred as claimed in some places. In the final electoral roll released in January, there have been more inclusions than deletions, he said. While 35,834 names were deleted, as many as 68,823 names were added to the final electoral roll. “During the summary revision, political parties reviewed the roll and no such deletions were flagged at that time,” the official said.
Addressing the media, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo, while answering a query on this issue, said that in some cases, a few voters may have been shifted to nearby polling booths if the total number of voters in their previous booths exceeded 1,500. However, the officials suspected that some deletions could have happened in the 2022 draft roll. Around 2.14 lakh deletions were made in the draft roll released in November 2022.