The Election Commission has expressed regret at large-scale complaints of missing names in the electoral rolls and promised to order a probe.
The issue cropped at the EC briefing on Thursday, where details were given on the sixth phase of polling. “We will look into the matter and we apologise for the inconvenience caused to voters,” Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma said in response to questions about missing or deleted names.
There have been many complaints, particularly from Maharashtra, that hundreds of thousands of names were missing in the voters’ lists on Thursday, when 19 constituencies in the State went to the polls.
In Mumbai itself, there were charges that around two lakh voters did not find their names on the list.
Among them are HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani and Marathi actor Atul Kulkarni.
While conceding there could have been errors in the preparation of electoral rolls, the Commission officials maintained that it alone could not be faulted. The revised electoral rolls were available for public scrutiny on March 9. The Commission at that time had said parties and individual voters could bring errors and omissions to the notice of the relevant electoral officers.
Priyanka Kakodkar reports from Mumbai:
“I have not seen this kind of massive operational mistake,” Mr. Brahma told a television channel. “This kind of unauthorised deletion happened due to lack of supervision and coordination on the ground … This is a lapse on our part and we should acknowledge and rectify our mistake.”
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan blamed the voters. “Corporate leaders are complaining about this, but they should have checked their names on the online voter list. Don’t they check before taking an international flight?”
The BJP has filed a police complaint, calling the deletion of names a “criminal conspiracy” by the Congress–NCP government and the EC. In Pune too, many voters complained that their names were not on the list.
