Syed Khalique Ahmed : Ahmedabad, Tue Dec 18 2012, 02:47 hrs
J S Bandukwala, who is the state president of People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), was among several people who could not cast his vote on Monday as his name was missing from the electoral register. His ID card no. is HDG2440741.
He said he had always been casting his vote at the polling booth in Rosary School near his house in Fatehgunj locality. “However, I was surprised when I did not find my name in the voters' list this morning.”
When contacted, Vadodara District Election Officer (DEO) Vinod Rao said, “It is the responsibility of every voter to ensure his/her name is there in the voters' list at the time of its revision.”
He said the deletion and addition of names as also corrections in names and residential addresses continued till November 20 this year.
“The exercise of voters' list revision had been going on for the last several months and the news about it was regularly carried by every newspaper in English and Gujarati language,” Rao said.
Several people from Juhapura area falling in Vejalpur Assembly constituency in Ahmedabad also complained their names were missing from the electoral list.
Saiyed Mohammed Sadiq from Anar Park, whose holds election identity card no LPZ7399454, said he had voted in 2002 and 2007 but he found his name missing from the list when he went to cast his vote today.
He said he also checked it online on state chief election commissioner's website by using his name as also ID card number but his name was not there.
Mirza Anwar Beg, a resident of Asrarul Haq Flats in Ekta Nagar area of Vejalpur, also complained that the names of four of his family members as well as his own were not there in the electoral list. He said he had not changed his address for the last 10 years.
Abdur Razzaq Memon (ID no. LPZ3484314) and his wife Mumtazbanu Memon (LPZ3484326), residents of Ramzan Park, Part III, Gyaspur, were also surprised when they did not find their names in the voters' list today.
Several people from Rahil society, behind Sonal Cinema, also said they could not cast their votes because their names had disappeared from the electoral list.
Kinjal Patel, manning the office of Vejalpur Congress candidate Murtuzakhan Pathan, said his office had received complaints from more than 800 people whose names were missing from the electoral list.
The names of Ramesh Dhanani and his wife Priya could not be located in the register when they went to cast their votes at St. Kabir School under Ghatlodia constituency.
In Bapunagar constituency, the names of advocate Kamlesh Bhavsar and two of his relatives, Manishaben and Manjulaben, were not on the register and hence, they could not cast their votes.
Zoya Dalal, residing in Paldi under Ellisbridge constituency, also complained her name was missing from electoral register.
When contacted, Ahmedabad DEO Vijay Nehra said some people did call him over phone about their names not being there in the electoral list.
“But the administration made its best efforts by placing advertisements in almost all the major newspapers informing people about the roll revision exercise that went on for a year. Those whose names was not there in the list should have contacted the election officials,” Nehra said.
“However, I salute the people of Ahmedabad city for the record polling of over 70 per cent, the first metro city in the country with such a high turnout,” he said.
