Gurugram residents raise concern over missing names in voters’ list

Missing names in the voters’ list, shifting of votes to other booths, mismatch in the physical lists provided to the polling staff compared to the electronic lists, and confusion due to changes or creation of new booths may have cast a shadow on polling in the Municipal Corporation elections, which resulted into low turnout of

around 42 percent in Gurugram city.

Hundreds of people living in high-rise buildings and rental accommodations with frequent house changes found their names removed from the voters’ list at the time of polling for Gurugram MC on Sunday.

A local lawyer, Vishal Raj Sehijpal, a resident of Sector 23, complained to the state Election Commission through the District Magistrate, stating, “People of Sector 23 are shocked as they are not able to find their names in the voter list. Surprisingly, the voter helpline app shows their name, serial number but not on the physical list. Get this investigated. My five family members couldn’t vote.”

Terming it as an “election fraud”, Shruti, a Sector 23 resident said, “Over 500 voters have been deprived of their constitutional rights in our sector as their names were missing from the voter list.”

Satish Kumar, a resident of Sector 47, alleged that he and his wife polled in the last Assembly elections, but now, they had been deprived of the right to elect the Mayor and MC members. “Our votes are not there in polling booth at DPS School, Sector 47, Ward 11 even though we have voted in the Assembly elections here. Where have our votes gone,” he asked.

Chandan Kumar a resident of Sector 104 said, “almost 180 votes haven’t found their booth due to incorrect voters list uploaded”.

Many residents in Sector 7, Ward 32, came to the polling booth only to find that their names were missing in the list. They alleged that they had voted in the Assembly elections, but in the civic elections, their names had been deleted from the list.

A resident of Ward 30, Shiv Badoni, said his name was not in the list. “I had cast my vote in the Assembly elections, but my name had been removed in the civic elections.”

The residents complained of unfair voter realignment in Ward 18 owing to administrative negligence. They alleged, “Many voters have been arbitrarily shifted to Ward 16, and a new booth in apartments has been strategically realigned — all to favour a particular political party. This blatant manipulation undermines fair democratic process.”

Ashok Kumar, a resident of Sector 46, said the gross negligence had directly impacted the voters’ participation. “Don’t blame the public for low turnout when the system itself is designed to discourage them,” he alleged.

District Magistrate-cum-District Election Officer Ajay Kumar said the claims and objections were invited by the administration prior to the preparation of draft electoral rolls in December last year and those who filed the claims, their names were added in the voters’ list. Even after the preparation of electoral rolls, there was a provision to add the names, he said.

With regard to the complaints of changes made in the booths, he said not many changes were made in the booths.

“More than 98 per cent of the booths are same but due to increase in number of votes by about 1.5 lakh after the Assembly elections, we were forced to make some changes in the booths, including the setting-up of some new booths.”