145;Missing146; thousands can146;t vote in Mumbai

The cool breeze blowing into Versova did nothing to calm Subhash Bhoir8217;s growing fury. In 1997, Bhoir stood for election as a corporato...

The cool breeze blowing into Versova did nothing to calm Subhash Bhoir8217;s growing fury. In 1997, Bhoir stood for election as a corporator. On Monday, he found he wasn8217;t on the all-important voters8217; list. Elsewhere, filmstar Tanuja was furious as she explained how her daughters 8212; actors Tanisha and Kajol 8212; paid taxes, had a passport but had fallen off the voters8217; list. 8216;8216;It8217;s ridiculous,8217;8217; fumed Tanisha. 8216;8216;This is not my problem, it8217;s theirs.8217;8217; Her sister Kajol was as angry. 8216;8216;And the worst thing is no one can do anything about it.8217;8217;

Across Mumbai, from shanty town to skyscraper, thousands of irked, frustrated voters 8212; many of them registered, with voter IDs 8212; could not vote today.

In some cases, the entire housing societies or neighbourhoods were disenfranchised. Worse, the voters8217; lists contained names of the dead, children, or people who had left Mumbai for good.

In Malabar Hill, Cyrus Vazifdar 8212; a voter for 29 years 8212; went from booth to booth looking for his name and those of his family members. 8216;8216;I have voted in every election, I don8217;t understand how my name is missing when I haven8217;t even changed residence,8217;8217; said Vazifdar 48.

Some like Bhoir didn8217;t give up easily. He rushed to the main electoral centre in Andheri West where he was shocked to see hundreds of voters in the same predicament.

By noon, Congress candidate Sunil Dutt was called to intervene. But nothing could help, not even a call to Chief Electoral Officer R.K. Bhargava. As the crowds screamed, 8220;yeh election band karo stop this election8221;, Dutt also lost his cool. 8216;8216;Is this the way to conduct elections?8217;8217; he fumed at officials. 8216;8216;Why did you not cross-check the census reports?8217;8217;

Police had to intervene at times to stop arguments between presiding officers.

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The family of G.J. Nair 56, head of the Seismology Division of BARC, was among the 64 families of registered voters in Anushakti Nagar who could not vote. 8216;8216;The names of only four families have appeared and all four have left Mumbai,8217;8217; said Nair.

In Juhu, former starlet Pooja Bedi had a voter ID card but still could not vote. 8216;8216;The names of celebs have probably been removed so that tomorrow they can tell us that if we have not voted, we have no right to criticise them,8217;8217; she joked.