Manoj Phulphagar, chairman of the Moghul Gardens housing society, was busy since morning helping senior citizens of their society to reach the polling booths so that they could vote. But when it came to his own turn, Phulphagar was not able to exercise his right. “My name was not in the list. Before the polling date, I had managed to get the information that my name was not in the list,” he said. Phulphagar visited his old polling booth but his name was not there. “The officer told me they had used all search methods to find my name but it was not in the list. So I had to return without voting,” he said. Phulphagar was one of several residents who could not vote on Monday with majority of them being from the Pune Lok Sabha constituency. Some like Phulphagar had an inkling of what was to come — but many turned up at their old polling booths just to be sure. A former nurse at Sassoon Hospital, Shakuntala Gaikwad visited two polling booths since morning but could not find her name anywhere. “My son’s name was there but mine was not there,”she said. Like Phulphagar, Gaikwad also missed voting for the first time in many years. Voters who found their names missing mostly had voter cards which were dated before 1994. Majority of the voters did not know their names were struck off and had not received any intimation about the same. On their part, district election office said they continue to update the electoral rolls regularly to keep it as sanitised as possible. “The revised rolls were published and given in hardcopy to the political parties also,” officials said. Nilima Joshi was upset over her name missing from electoral rolls. "I have been voting in all elections. This is for the first time my name is missing. If I get property tax in my name every year then why the name is missing from electoral roll," she said. Vivek Velankar, president of the Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizen’s forum working on civic issues, has demanded accountability from the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Maharashtra on names missing. “Officers who had deleted the names should be taken task to,” he said.
