Missing names disappoint some

There were voters on Thursday whose names were either missing from the electoral rolls or were told that they were among the list of people who had relocated.

Lalita Gupta, 77, was one such unlucky person. She arrived at a polling station in Mayur Vihar Phase-I in East Delhi constituency, but had to return disappointed.

“I voted in the Delhi Assembly elections. But this time the polling agents did not allow me to vote. They said my name is not there in the electoral rolls,” she said after coming out of a government school.

Officials at the polling centre said they had strict orders and couldn’t allow anyone to vote whose name did not appear in the rolls.

There were also voters who found that they were barred from polling as their names were in a list of people who had relocated.

Abhishek Anand, a voter in the same franchise, said he
had exercised his franchise in the last Assembly elections,
but this time he was told he was no more a resident of that house.

“When I asked the booth level officer about this, she said she had personally distributed voting slips in the area and during her visit to my home she was unable to find anyone. So she listed my name in ‘shifted persons’ list,” Anand said.

He said that she suggested him to apply for a new Electoral Photo Identity Card as his photo identification slip has not been generated.

“But I went back home and requested my landlord to accompany me to the polling station. He met the BLO and assured her that I am his
tenant at the same house. She then gave me the photo
identification slip, which she claimed was unavailable a few minutes ago. I was able to vote after that,” Anand said.