Names missing, wrong information on electoral rolls: voters stumped as polling date nears

In a letter to the district collector, National Society of Clean Cities, a civil society organisation, pointed out that many senior citizens have lost their right to vote as their names were deleted from the voters’ list

Freny Sukhiya and her husband also had their names deleted without their knowledge. “I have never missed an election in my life but this time I will not be able to vote. They said I can vote in the October polls,” she said. (File/ Express photo by Amit Mehra)

When Anupama Singh, a resident of Baner, checked the electoral rolls using her voter’s ID card number online, she was in for a shock. Instead of her name and details, the online website showed the details of a completely different person – Pushpa Narayan. “I have no clue on how this happened and have taken it up with the authorities. But this election, I doubt whether I will be able to vote,” she said.

Singh is not alone, Manoj Phulphagar, chairman of the Mogul Garden Housing Society in Koregaon Park, was stumped to find his name deleted from the electoral rolls. “The irony in the situation is that when the staff of the Election Commission came to update the list in our society, I told the staff to ensure that they get all the help, but for some reason my own name got deleted,” he said. Phulphagar went to the office of the Cantonment Election Officer to understand why it was done. “A correct answer was not with them. I was asked why I didn’t check my name regularly, to which I replied that I never felt the need to do so as it was permanent,” he said. On election day, Phulphagar plans to go to the polling booth and try his luck.

Raju Sheti, another resident of the area, had a more bizarre experience. In 2017, Sheti physically transferred his name from Delhi to Pune and had got the paperwork done. Subsequently he managed to vote in 2019 with a voter’s card that had his Pune address, but this year when he went to check his name, he found it was deleted. “When I went to the office of the Pune Cantonment Election Officer I was told my name still appears in the Delhi rolls so I could not vote,” he said. Sheti, who had served in the central government, feels he has the right to criticise the next government. “I really do not know how this happened. I feel cheated,” he said.

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Electoral rolls are regularly sanitised by district authorities to ensure dead people’s names and those individuals who have moved are cleared. For the present election, more than 55,000 dead voters’ names were deleted from the lists in a special drive which involved door-to-door survey by electoral officers. However, as residents have said, many who are still alive have had their names deleted. A thorough revision of the rolls was done in 2019.

In a letter to the district collector, National Society of Clean Cities, a civil society organisation, pointed out that many senior citizens have lost their right to vote as their names were deleted from the voters’ list. Rohan Desai, a member of the organisation, said around 3 per cent of senior citizens’ names have been deleted from the rolls. “The work of deletion is more difficult than inclusion. But none of those whose names were deleted ever got any notice or any communication from the government about their names being removed,” he said.

District collector Suhas Diwase said he will look into the issue.

Parthasarathi Biswas

Partha Sarathi Biwas is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express with 10+ years of experience in reporting on Agriculture, Commodities and Developmental issues. He has been with The Indian Express since 2011 and earlier worked with DNA. Partha's report about Farmers Producer Companies (FPC) as well long pieces on various agricultural issues have been cited by various academic publications including those published by the Government of India. He is often invited as a visiting faculty to various schools of journalism to talk about development journalism and rural reporting. In his spare time Partha trains for marathons and has participated in multiple marathons and half marathons. ... Read More

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