Khader, Rai find thier names missing from voter's list

The common man not finding his name in the voters’ list is a very common occurrence during elections.

What gave rise to surprise – and even questions about the efficiency of the system – was the fact that the names of two ministers were missing in the list of voters at the Dakshina Kannada local authority constituency during the elections to the Legislative Council on Sunday.

District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai and Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader had a tough time searching for their names at their respective polling booths, when they arrived to exercise their franchise.

Khader, who came to the Mangaluru Taluk Panchayat polling station at 8.20 am, was surprised as he could not find his name in the list. The polling officials asked him to sit in a room, but failed in their search for his name in the list at the booth. Instead, Khader’s name was found in the list at the Ullal Municipality polling booth. He was forced to leave for Ullal and exercised his franchise there at 9.30 am.

When mediapersons asked him about the matter, Khader said he had given his preference to cast his vote at the Mangaluru Taluk Panchayat. He admitted that there was, however, some confusion, adding that the additional deputy commissioner had attributed it to be the outcome of lack of communication among the officials concerned.

District In-charge Minister Rai, on the other hand, had preferred to cast his vote at the Bantwal Taluk Panchayat polling booth, being the legislator of the constituency. While he arrived at the booth at 9 am, he found to his dismay that his name was not in the list. He then went to Kallige Gram Panchayat – situated near his house – to exercise his vote, but, the list there too did not have his name.

Deputy Commissioner and District Returning Officer A B Ibrahim, who learnt of the mistakes committed by the polling officials, directed tahsildar Purandar Hegde to let Rai exercise his franchise at Bantwal TP booth. Rai then returned to the Bantwal Taluk Panchayat booth to cast his vote.