Indian Doubles Badminton Player Jwala Gutta was one of the many people who could not vote in Telangana elections on Friday after their names did not feature in the voters’ list. As the state went out to vote for its first Assembly elections after its formation, the Arjuna awardee took to Twitter and announced that her name was not in the electoral rolls
“Surprised to see my name disappear from the voting list after checking online!!” she tweeted. And soon enough, there were several similar anecdotes pouring in on Twitter, with the hashtag ‘#WhereIsMyVote’.
Surprised to see my name disappear from the voting list after checking online!! #whereismyvote
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) December 7, 2018
How’s the election fair...when names r mysteriously disappearing from the list!!
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) December 7, 2018
In a separate video response to several people questioning why she had not checked if she was registered earlier and insinuating she had said this to join politics, Jwala said that she had in fact checked online. She said she had completed the formalities three weeks ago and only then had gone out to vote on Friday, only to find her name absent from the voters’ list.
To all the silly questions!! pic.twitter.com/6bKDwW8Xcv
— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) December 7, 2018
She also revealed that this happened with her father and sister as well. Only her mother was able to cast her vote. “I don't understand how my name is missing. I've been living here for 12 years,” she told news agency ANI. “And if the names are being deleted, we should definitely be informed,” she argued in the video she posted on Twitter.
Jwala Gutta: I checked my name online 2-3 weeks ago, my mother's&my names were there, my father's&my sister's were missing. Today we went to cast vote but my name was also missing. I don't understand how's my name missing. I've been living here for 12 yrs. #TelanganaElections pic.twitter.com/mh1cRnTWu1
— ANI (@ANI) December 7, 2018
Apart from issues of voters’ data being missing from electoral rolls across the state, there were also problems regarding faulty EVMs. In several polling booths across Telangana, voting was delayed by up to two hours as EVM machines were found to be malfunctioning and later replaced. This irked several people who had come early in the morning to cast their vote before going about their day.
As of 3 pm, the voter turnout in the state stood at 56.17%. 1,821 candidates are contesting the election in Telangana for 119 Assembly seats.