In Ward 12 in Machilipatnam, 51-year-old Venkata Siva Suryanarayana Nethi’s name is published thrice in succession in the final voters’ list published in January, only with a slight variance in the spelling of his surname.
Eighteen other individuals in the ward figure twice on the rolls.
Even more disturbing is the fact that 25 persons who have passed away since the last elections continue to figure on the final list.
While the dead find a place on the voters’ list, the living find themselves excluded, as in the case of 81-year-old Kakarla Gopala Krishna, and a couple K. Mehar Kalyan and Vijaya Lakshmi from Ward 14. The couple’s names are missing from the final list, thereby jeopardising their chances of voting in the forthcoming elections.
"I’m clueless as to how the living have been struck off the voters’ list while the dead still figure on it," said a perplexed Mr. Gopala Krishna, a retired veterinarian.
In Machilipatnam Assembly constituency alone, the total number of voters fell from 1,82,288 in 2014 to 1,67,497 in 2019, a reduction of 14,791 voters compared to the previous general elections.
In Krishna district (16 Assembly constituencies), the voters’ list has gone down by 13,771 names as compared to the 2014 voters’ list.
Glitches galore
"Anganwadi and ASHA workers have been appointed as booth-level officers without proper training. They did
not conduct a complete door-to-door survey. In a curious case, an Aadhaar card of a person made it to the voters’ list in a classic example of a technical glitch," YSRCP’s Ward 12 in-charge G. Bhagavan told The Hindu .
"Multiple entries of the same person have replaced the names of several voters whose names were deleted from the final list," Mr. Bhagavan added.
"We cannot specify the exact number of the votes deleted from the final list. The names of hundreds of our party members have been deleted. Deletion of the names without a field-level inquiry should be investigated thoroughly," former MLA Perni Venkataramayya of the YSRCP told The Hindu .
When contacted, Bandar Revenue Divisional Officer P. Udaya Bhaskar said that they are preparing to address the grievance of the voters.
