After several residents of the R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency protested outside the office of the Returning Officer (RO) on Friday, claiming that they had been removed from the Voters’ List, District Election Officer D. Karthikeyan said voters had been given adequate opportunities to enrol themselves.
Mr. Karthikeyan said the Election Commission had organised camps at all booths on November 20 to encourage voters to enrol. “In all, 1761 people came forward. After verification, 1,200 claims were deemed to have been genuine,” he said. Mr. Karthikeyan admitted that updating the Voters’ List in urban areas was a difficult task, since residents, who live in rented houses keep moving often.
Earlier, multiple individuals — mostly women from Korukkupet — had gathered outside the RO’s office with their electors’ identity cards. Most said they were on the list ahead of the cancelled April byelection. Some even had photo voter slips. Mr. Karthikeyan also said his team was in possession of 360 VVPATS, of which 256 will be deployed — one for each booth in the constituency. There will be a total of 60 names on the ballot, comprising 59 candidates and the NOTA option. So, a total of four balloting units will be connected in parallel.
