Several voters were unable to exercise their franchise in various assembly segments of Karimnagar parliament constituency on Thursday as their names went missing from the electoral rolls.
Another issue that kept voters away was the non-distribution of voter slips, which is used as an identification document during election, although the Election Commission had earlier clarified that it would no longer be used as the standalone ID proof.
A woman resident of Karimnagar town, who had cast her vote during the Telangana Assembly elections last December, said her name was not included in the voter list at the polling booth in Bhagathnagar locality here.
Another resident, P. Nagamohan, a senior citizen, said he had secured the voter slip from a MeeSeva centre by paying ₹10, but the polling booth mentioned in the slip was government girls’ high school in Karimnagar town, but the locality wasn’t specified. As a result, he had to visit four girls’ high schools in the town until he found his name at a polling booth in Mukarampura. His wife’s vote, on the other hand, was at a polling station near his residence in Jyothinagar.
Residents of Vidyanagar had also argued with election authorities over deletion of their names and being assigned polling booths far from their locality.
Frequent discrepancies
Expressing concern over frequent discrepancies in voter lists, Election Watch district president N. Srinivas said during his interaction with voters, a demand for online voting was raised to increase polling percentage. He said several voters had stayed away from voting as they were not issued voter slips, while suggesting that the authorities open a permanent election office for proper enrolment of voters throughout the year.
