Cong nominee's name missing from roll

Congress State President G Parameshwara, in his memorandum to the CEC, said names of the voters should not be deleted in the interest of free and fair elections.

What triggered the party to petition the CEC is that its candidate for one of the constituencies going for bypolls not finding his name in the electoral roll. Raghunandan Ramanna, the Congress candidate for Channapatna, found his name missing from the electoral roll.

Raghunandan was gearing up for the polls when he received a jolt from the election officers who omitted his name from the electoral roll. To his surprise, the names of his wife Shruthika, mother Vijayalakshmi Ramanna and brother Devanandan were missing in 2009, but have been included in the voters' list in 2011.

"I, my wife, my mother and brother live under one roof, but going by the voters' list, I am not a resident of Channapatna. It's more surprising that a person who could not find a place in the voters' list got a voter ID card," quipped a miffed Raghunandan.

Along with G Parameshwara and a host of senior Congress leaders besides his family members, Raghunandan submitted his objection to Chief Electoral Officer C S Suranjana and demanded rectification of the blunder committed by the election officers in Channapatna.

Raghunandan, who has a masters degree in Information System from a US university, is now into agriculture and hospitality business. His grandfather  V Venkatappa was the first Speaker of the State legislative Assembly.

Raghunandan, 43, is contesting polls for the first time. He will be taking on BJP candidate C P Yogeshwar and JD (S) nominee Nagaraj.