Mumbai: For 72-year-old Sheikh Mohammad Kamaruddin from Mankhurd’s Lallubhai compound, election day turned out to be a nightmare. After spending almost four hours looking for his name in the voter list at six different polling booths, he finally agreed to his wife’s repeated pleas to stop the search and head back home for a very late breakfast.
“This is the slip I was given for the 2014 assembly polls. I have been showing it at all polling booths, but miraculously my name features nowhere. How is it possible? I have not done anything wrong, neither am I dead,” Mr. Sheikh said, showing a slip and his voter ID card.
His wife, Sabiya, was also fed up with the search. “I want to vote, but how can I? I am tired of searching and running from one place to other. Forget it,” she said.
The couple were among many in the city who could not find their names listed in the final electoral roll. Around 70 residents of a transit camp in Maharashtra Nagar, which was recently shifted across the road, could not vote either.
“Only my son’s name is featured on the voter list. I live with him, but my name is not there. No one is available to take a complaint,” said Asha Fernandes, 50. With her were David Paul and Chandani Paul, who also had voter ID cards, but could not vote.
Interestingly, some of the names that were missing from electoral roll were seen in the State Election Commission’s mobile application. “He [an official] showed it to me, but said there is no mention on the paper and hence I cannot vote,” said Shankar Lingayya.
Chembur resident Ahalya Sarosh Katrak also missed out on casting her vote. “I have been voting here since 1995, but this is the first time I could not vote for this reason. This is ridiculous. How can my name go missing at a time when we have taken all precautions?” she said. Her husband, sister, nephew and his wife could not vote either.
Rajkumar Sharma, a social activist from Chembur, experienced a similar problem. “We have a joint family, and I live with my two brothers. My name is on the voter list, but despite having the same address, my brothers aren’t on the list. This is such a mess; this time, the Election Commission has completely failed to make this process a success,” he said.
In Wadala, too, the situation was identical. Even candidates complained about the EC’s functioning. “Three buildings were added in my ward a day before, and yesterday I was told that they are not the part of final voter list and are from a different ward. How are we supposed to campaign?” asked Amey Ghole, the Shiv Sena candidate from Ward 178.
