Chaos and confusion pervaded at the polling booths set up for residents of Bhusari Colony in Baramati as many of them could not cast their vote on Tuesday as their names were missing from the voters’ list, despite them having voter cards or them having exercised their franchise in previous elections.
Vikram More, a resident of Bhusari Colony, was in for a rude shock as neither his or any of his family member’s name featured in the voter list. “We have voted in so many elections. Since the last 25 years, my family has been living here and voting from here, we didn’t even change houses. Everyone else in our building could find their names but not us,” said More.
It’s not just More and his family who faced this inconvenience. Dilip Shah, a retired government officer from Undri, has exercised his franchise for many elections from here. When he went to cast his vote on Tuesday, he found out of the four people in his family, one one person’s name featured in the voters list.
“I have handled many elections during my service life and I know this much that names can’t be deleted without proper procedure…I was made to run from pillar-to-post by officials but I still could not vote. Infact, due to the heat, I fell ill when I returned home,” said Shah adding that he wasn’t served any notice about the deletion of his name from the voter list.
A man, who did not wish to be known, said, this year, neither his nor his family members’ names could be found in the voter list. “I have voted in 2019, 2014 and even other elections in between. When I went to the polling station today morning, I realised this has happened with a lot of people. I waited for an hour at the polling station…there were so many people who had documents, have voted before and still their name didn’t feature in the voter list.”
“I tried a lot of things. I visited the corporation office, my wife called up the Khadakwasla constituency office, I got contacts of some people who I thought could help, but it didn’t come through. I am going to write a letter to the PMO office about this,” said the man.
Shivaji Choudhary, another resident of right Bhusari was not allowed in the polling booth. “Last election I voted, but I don’t know how my name is missing this year. Everyone else in my family could vote, but I missed my chance,” said Choudhary.
People from Bhusari Colony are also confused because names of some family members have featured in Pune constituency whereas names of others have come up in Baramati constituency.
At the enquiry desk at Eklavya Chowk, a frustrated mother-son duo from Bavdhan who voted in 2019, were trying to figure out how their names are missing. “As much as we know, we are supposed to vote for Baramati constituency. I live in Bavdhan, but I also have a residence in Bhusari colony. A lot of people who are coming here to vote are not able to find their names.”
A help desk was set up by volunteers of Prabodhan Manch who were helping citizens with their queries. Pavan Kanojia, Abhijeet Ghumre and Manish Nande were making note of names missing from voters list, name and address change in right Bhusari colony and registered around 40 complaints till 1pm.
“Since the last few months, I have registered around 900 names. A lot of people, who couldn’t go back to their hometown, were happy they got to vote. There were a lot of new voters also, around 300 from the ones I registered. But the names of a lot of people were missing. People who have lived here for many years and voted here, those who had their voter ID card in their hands…still couldn’t vote….The government needs to take cognisance of this issue,” said Pavan Kanojia.
But missing names weren’t the only mayhem in the Bhusari area. Three polling booths were set-up a few metres away from Eklavya Chowk, which resulted in heavy traffic and vehicles brushing past each other. Amid the confusion of missing names, the scorching sun, traffic jams and lack of facilities such as chairs and wheelchairs for senior citizens added to the woes.
“People who have voted for nagarsevak, people who have voted three to four times, their names have been deleted. In some cases, the names of entire family are missing. They have concentrated all polling booths in the same area. They could have set up pollling booths at other places such as Savarkar Maidan so people from right Bhusari colony could have voted there. Senior citizens were waiting for two hours, a lot of senior citizens are coming and only one wheelchair is there,” said Prashant Kanojia, a member of Prabodhini Manch.
When contacted, assitant returning officer for Khadakwasla constituency Sanjay Asawle said, “Pune district has recorded the highest voter registration. Our helpline numbers have been working for the last eight days to solve voter ID queries. Maybe, citizens were not able to find their names due to change of residence. Another reason could be delimitation, which is not in our hands.”
Amid the confusion of missing names, the scorching sun, traffic jams and lack of facilities such as chairs and wheelchairs for senior citizens added to the woes. (Express Photo by Pavan Khengre) 
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