EC apologises for missing names in voters' list in Mumbai

The Election Commission today apologised for the large number of names missing from voters' list in Mumbai, admitting there was a "lapse" even as a blame game erupted over the matter.

A day after the Lok Sabha polls in Mumbai, BJP's candidate from Mumbai North East Kirit Somaiya filed a police complaint for "criminal negligence and conspiracy" while Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithivraj Chavan said at least in Mumbai eligibe voters should not be so "careless" in checking their names on the website.

"I must apologise and regret that the names of such a large number of our voters has not been found in the list. It's a very very massive operational mistake which should not have happened," Election Commissioner H S Brahma told reporters in Delhi.

"This is some lapse on our part. We should acknowledge it and try to rectify the who defect," he said.

With Assembly elections in Maharashtra due later this year, the EC said those people whose names are missing can be added when the poll body updates its lists from May 20. The NCP even demanded a CBI probe.

With names of some corporates like HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh missing from the rolls, Chavan's response was, "If you are boarding an international flight you recheck your reservation 24 hours. Couldn’t you get your secretary to check whether your name is there or not one week or four days in advance?

I can understand if slum-dwellers complaint, but why should corporates complain that their names are missing. They have been just careless."

The sate BJP unit asked the election authorities to undertake an exercise to revise electoral rolls.

Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis said that many people whose names were excluded had cast their ballots during both general as well as assembly elections in 2009 and also carried valid voter identity cards.

"Almost 90 per cent of the names deleted are of those who were considered traditional voters of the Shiv Sena and the BJP," he claimed, adding, "Due procedure was not followed before deleting names and no intimation was given to those concerned".

He also questioned the assertion of the Maharashtra chief electoral officer and returning officers of constituencies that it is voters' responsiblity to check if their names are present in electoral rolls.

Senior leaders of the Sena-BJP led opposition alliance in Maharashtra, including Uddhav Thackeray, Gopinath Munde and Ramdas Athawale plan to meet the Chief Election Commissioner to draw his attention to the matter, Somaiya said.

MNS candidate from Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency Bala Nandgaonkar, alleged it is a "conspiracy hatched by the Congress and the NCP".

NCP criticised the opposition parties for their outcry, saying that if there were any errors they could have got them rectified before the polling.