Complaints abound on polling day about names missing from the voters’ list in all constituencies of Hyderabad district.
Famous badminton player Jwala Gutta tweeted about her missing name from rolls. “Surprised to see my name disappear from the voting list after checking online!! #whereismyvote,” she posted on her Twitter account.
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Anil Prashant from Domalguda complained that his name alone was missing from rolls, while his parents’ existed. Same was the grievance of Dhaval Patel from Himayatnagar, who returned without voting, despite having the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC).
In some cases, the rolls did not have names of even the voters who were enrolled recently. “My sister Faria Simran’s vote is missing, though they included her name recently, and we even got a message on mobile confirming that our EPIC is ready. We never received it (EPIC) though,” complained Khaja Mahmood Shariff from Amberpet. Also missing were the names of Shahnaz Begum and Mumtaz Begum from the same constituency.
Confusion prevailed as many voters carrying their old EPICs, as the authorities have failed to deliver the new one with changed ids. Online search with old ids failed to yield results and many people returned without voting.
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A number of names were deleted from the voters list after a drive to link Aadhaar with the EPIC. Later, the State Election Commission, through a special drive allowed voters to add their names back in the electoral rolls and provided them new EPICs.
“Our names were included during latest survey. We were promised new EPICs, but they have not been delivered. Now, my vote has disappeared from rolls,” says Mohd. Ashfaq Ali from Amberpet, displaying his old EPIC.
Octagenarian P. Krishna, retired deputy director in State Medical Services, wheel-chaired himself to the polling station at Picket in Secunderabad Cantonment constituency, only to find that his and his wife P.Chandrakala’s names were not there in the list. Interestingly, his daughter-in-law P.Geeta Laxmi’s name was found twice in two booths of the same polling station.
Added with woeful distribution of voter slips, many voters were seen running around various polling stations frantically, trying to locate their names.
“I had to check practically all polling booths in Amberpet constituency before locating my vote. I have got neither EPIC, nor voter slip. This, after they have included our names in recent survey. All my family members’ names were in one polling station, but mine was in different one,” said Tirumala Ramanujacharyulu, a senior citizen.