COIMBATORE: Amid allegations that several eligible voters in Tamil Nadu couldn’t vote in the April 19 Lok Sabha election, a protest was organised under the banner of ‘People for Annamalai’ here. K Annamalai, the BJP candidate for the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, had alleged on the election day the names of thousands of people were missing from the electoral rolls.
The protesters, most of them with electoral stains on their fingers, raised slogans against the Election Commission. Holding placards they demanded voting rights and alleged their voting rights were denied in the recent LS polls and their names were intentionally removed from the voters’ list.
Around 5% of total voters in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency were intentionally denied voting rights in this election, they alleged.
A participant who had voted held a placard stating why the vote was denied to him while he was alive. When asked, he said that he had cast his vote and he took part in the protest in support of others who were denied voting rights.
Another elderly woman, named Hemalatha, claimed that many have cast double votes as the electoral ink was easily removable with chemicals.The protest was held in front of the South Taluk office in Coimbatore city on Thursday. It was organised by the ‘People for Annamalai’ movement and right-wing-linked organisations.
S Sudharshan, a convener of the movement, said “officials deleted the names of a particular section of voters who would have voted for BJP candidate Annamalai. The count of missing voters is more than a lakh in Coimbatore constituency alone,” he said.
He said that they submitted a petition before the Coimbatore collector demanding an option for the people who were denied their voting rights to cast their votes.
“We don’t want a re-poll but we demand an option to cast our votes. The district administration should find a solution for this issue. A person who had his name in the voters’ list released in January 2024 could not cast his vote as his name was intentionally removed from the list later. More than 800 voters were denied voting rights in the Kavundampalayam area alone,” Sudharshan said.
No objection was received on removal of voter names
Coimbatore: Collector Kranthikumar Padi on Thursday said that no objection has been received from the recognised political parties regarding the removal of names from the voters list in the district. Earlier, the BJP has alleged that there has been a large number of deletions in the voter list.
According to a release, Coimbatore District Draft Electoral Roll 2024 was released on October 27, 2023, in the presence of all recognized political party representatives. Accordingly, the total electorate in the district was 30,49,004. Two copies of the electoral roll were issued to all political parties. During the meeting held on November 24 after corrections, no objection was raised by parties regarding the names deleted from the draft voter list.
This information is published on the notice boards of government offices and the website of the Election Commission for public view. Later, the final voter list for 2024 was released on January 22. Accordingly, the total number of voters in the Coimbatore district was 16,71,003. Out of this, 47,559 were new voters. The names of 28,364 voters were deleted.