JOIN USAbdul Sattar from Kudroli cut short his holiday in Mysuru to exercise his franchise on Thursday.
He was, however, welcomed by disappointment when polling officials allowed his wife, children to vote but not him, as his name was missing in the voters' list. “That I had an EPIC and had voted in the 2018 Assembly elections did not make things better. I was asked to leave,” he added bitterly.
NSUI (South) President Shreyas Bhat too was not let to as his name was not in the voter’s list. “These are not stray cases of names missing in the voters' list,” argues former Mangaluru South MLA J R Lobo. According to him nearly 16,000 names are missing in the voters' list.
“In some apartments, the door numbers were not issued as the buildings had not obtained completion certificate from MCC. People residing in such buildings were prevented from voting. Who gave the authority permission to remove the names of voters who are citizens of India? Why they did not inform the voters about the reason for removal? Why did they voting rights to people who are the permanent residents of the district?” Lobo asked, at the District Congress Bhavan.
"Voting is a fundamental right and, for some reason, the rights of these voters had been rejected. I suspect foul play. On the basis of records, I will file a complaint with the Election Commission and chief electoral officer,” he declared.
"Even the government machinery is responsible for the names missing. There should be a system in place to automatically induct names of voters into the list. If the Aadhaar is not linked with the EPIC, fair elections cannot be expected,” he stressed.