Sai, a first-time voter from Bengaluru, had accompanied his mother to the polling booth to vote. While he was able to cast his vote, his mother was not. In spite of staying at the same address, his mother was asked to go to another voting booth, but there she was informed that her name had been deleted.
A lot of citizens in Bengaluru were left cheated when they could not find their names on the voting list. Despite exercising their franchise in the 2018 Assembly elections and the elections preceding that, their names seemed to have been removed. Social media was abuzz with citizens complaining about not being able to vote and enquiring about what can be done.
Two local social activists, Ramesh Reddy and Krishna Hebbar, decided to approach the Election Commission about this issue with a petition titled My Vote, My Right, which has gone viral amongst citizens. “I personally know a few friends whose names, and those of their parents, were removed from the list. On learning that this wasn’t an isolated incident and that the deletions were a lot higher than the previous elections, I decided to pursue the matter by creating a Google form to gather information and present the case to the Election Commission. My friend Krishna later joined me to help out as the response was more than I had anticipated,” Ramesh tells TNM.
While over 2,000 people have signed the petition, around 10,000 others have enquired about it. Ramesh says, “It’s strange that dead people’s names still remain on the rolls. But names of people who voted in the last few elections, at the same polling booths, have been deleted.” Talking about the reach of the petition, he mentions how people from Dharwad (which was yet to go the polls at that time) called them to say they are facing the same problem.
Claiming that the deletions may not be random but rather a systematic one, Ramesh thinks that it could be a move to benefit political parties. Blaming the Election Commission and the BBMP for lack of coordination, he contends that the removal of names did play a role in the low voter turnout in the city.
Ramesh says a lot of people are still filling up their details in the form, because of which they have decided to postpone handing it over to the Election Commission.
He says, “We will wait for a reply from the state Election Commission before deciding the future course of action. If we don’t get an appropriate response, we will approach the courts to find a solution.”
A lot of organisations and individuals have also approached the activists to team up and strengthen the cause. However, the duo has decided to wait for the state Election Commission’s reply before committing to anything.
Other organisations also have filed a case concerning the omission of names. In 2018, Million Voters Rising, a campaign by Whitefield Rising, had filed a PIL on behalf of those who had been disenfranchised. The case is still under hearing and the organisation has now put up a new form for people whose names were deleted in the final roll revision before this year’s Parliamentary elections.