BENGALURU: Rajendra Babu and his wife, from Shankarapuram, came to cast their vote at National College in Basavanagudi, just to find that the wife’s name was deleted. Babu, who stays at a housing complex comprising nine units and occupied by members belonging to one family, found that many of their names were deleted. In each house, one to three members’ names had been deleted.
This is not an isolated case in the Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency. It has happened across Bengaluru City. When The New Indian Express visited this polling station at National College, Basavanagudi, at least 40–50 people were standing with their EPIC cards, disappointed at their names being deleted from the voters’ list, and some returned home dejected. “I have been voting here for the last 30 years at the same polling station, but this time, strangely, it's been deleted,” said Sowbhagya, a resident of Shankarapuram, who was at the polling station to cast her vote.
Another resident, Trishaladevi, who is also a Shankarapuram resident, also found her name missing from the list. “It’s not just me here, there are many who have registered voter ID cards, but their names are not on the list. I feel bad because this time our vote has got wasted.How can they delete the names just like that?” ,she said.
Senior citizen Sudhir Mehta came all the way to vote in the scorching heat, only to end up exclaiming: “My name has been deleted!” Some were shocked to find their names marked, but voted for by someone else in their stead. Sanjay M Jain from Basavanagudi, who came with his registered EPIC card to vote, said, “My name is not deleted, but someone marked my name as voted. I am feeling bad for not getting the chance to exercise my right in my own name.” When he brought up the issue, he alleged that nobody listened to him.
Sajjan Raj Mehta, a trade activist, told this paper that at Chickpet — which comes under Bangalore Central Lok Sabha Constituency, hundreds of names were deleted. “We do not know if it is intentionally done or mischievously done, but whoever has done it should be taken to task,” he said. He also mentioned that most of these names were residents of Bengaluru and had North Indian names.
A senior official from the Chief Electoral Office in Karnataka said in spite of giving publicity and spreading awareness over days while appealing to the public to check their names on the list, and see whether their names were there on the list or not, many have not done it. “It is not fair to pass the blame at the last minute,” he said.