BMC Elections 2017: Curious case of list-less voters

More than 11 lakh voters who turned up to vote to elect a new Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday were surprised to find their names missing from the voters' list provided by the State Election Commission. The SEC's decision to delete the names of 11 lakh voters from the master list was to prevent electoral manipulation and ensure the voting percentage reflected is correct.

However, this cause major inconvenience as rows of voters' names went missing. While city's current population is 1,24,42,373, the number of voters has declined to 91,20,811. In 2012, the city had 1,02,86,579 registered voters.

While the SEC claimed that only 'nonexistent' voters' names — those who are ineligible to vote, or who have shifted residence, migrated, married or died — were deleted, the list on Tuesday was peppered with errors and anomalies as the majority of names were deleted or appeared on the list of a ward than that of the voter's ward. The list also contained the names of deceased persons and individuals with incorrect photos.

A number of parties claimed "thousands of voters" could not vote in Mumbai, Thane and other parts of the state because of an error-strewn voters' list.

Anil Parab, MLC and Shiv Sena functionary, said the election commission deleted the names of 11 lakh voters under the guise of 'cleaning up' the list. "I was informed that the SEC has deleted the names of people belonging to buildings that went for redevelopment. I have urged leaders from across the city to furnish the list of names deleted and I will lodge a formal complaint," said Parab.

State Election Commissioner JS Saharia, however, downplayed the issue, saying: "We received complaints pertaining to names missing from the voters' list from a few wards in Mumbai, and about 4-5 wards in Thane. Most complaints pertained to a change in wards. If some names were missing, the Election Commission of India should be held responsible, not the state election body."

He added that the SEC uses the EC's voters' list for the civic elections. "We have not added or deleted names. If there are complaints, the ECI should be held responsible."

Incidentally, the ECI had deleted over 11 lakh voters' names from Mumbai's rolls recently in a purification drive, and is now being blamed for the goof-up. The Election Commission officials remained unavailable for comments.

An EC official, on condition of anonymity, said citizens should have ensured their names were on the voters' list.

ALL’S IN A NAME

• Monica More, who lost both arms in an accident in 2015, said her name was not on the list. Monica’s father, Ashok More — a resident of Nehru Nagar in Kurla, said, “Monica became a registered voter in college. She could not vote due to her disability. My wife’s name was also not on the list.”
   
• The names of voters residing in five buildings at MIG Colony and three chawls in Shastri Nagar were missing.
   
• Ashok Malhotra, a senior citizen and resident of Cuffe Parade, said a photo of a female voter was placed beside his name.
   
• At least 100 voters residing in various societies adjoining MG Road in Kandivli (West) found their names missing. Residents of Patel Nagar and adjoining societies, including Navnath Nagar, Krishnanayan and others, returned home without electoral ink.