The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Anger, resentment among electorate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Anger, resentment among electorate

By K.V. Prasad

COIMBATORE, MAY 10 . The piquant situation voters found themselves in following deletion of names from the electoral rolls was best defined by a retired Government teacher.

"While in service, I had been a Presiding Officer during polling. But, this had never happened. Now, the tragedy is that my name and that of my wife are missing from the list," M. Subbaian said.

His 4-member family was stunned when told that only the names of his son and daughter figured in the list.

"My wife and I had voted during all elections from the same area (at Sidhapudur in the city) for the last 30 years. And, now we are told that just the two of us from the same family do not belong to this place. Is this not strange," he asked.

Even as Mr. Subbaian, among the earliest to be confronted by the problem, poured out his woes, prototypes of his case were multiplying across the city, in the suburbs and also Tirupur.

At almost every polling station, irate voters clashed with hapless polling officials. Voters were shocked to see that their names were clearly struck off in the list, suggesting that they had shifted residence.

Most voters produced the Electors' Photo Identity Card (EPIC) but were mortified to hear that they could not vote, as their names were not in the rolls. The initial confusion in the voters' mind soon gave way to anger over what they described as mindless deletion of names from the rolls. They said that while it was given to understand that obtaining of the EPIC would permanently guarantee the right to vote,

`Random deletion'

Pacifying irate voters at Peelamedu, the former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Minister, Pongalur N. Palanisamy, alleged lapses in rolls revision. "The deletion of a large number of names only points out that instead of a door-to-door survey, those involved in the work had resorted to random striking of names from the list."

Stating that he had visited nearly 150 booths, Mr. Palanisamy claimed deletion of 10 per cent to 20 per cent of names in each booth. It was not a serious revision of rolls. People's faith in revision was sure to erode with this episode, he said.

Even as he and the Coimbatore Deputy Mayor, K. Raghupathy, displayed EPICs of those who could not vote and said these had been rendered irrelevant owing to the deletion, aggrieved party activists produced a voters' list in which 13 families were omitted.

House number 29 was immediately followed by number 42. "What happened to those in between," they asked.

"I wanted to vote. It is my right. I even have the card (EPIC). But, it is of no use as my name is not in the list," said 60-year-old Chinnammal of Peelamedu. The Deputy Mayor himself was furious that his son's name was struck off the list. "We all voted during the last Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections. How did his name alone disappear?"

R. Rajendran of Venkatasamy Road in Sidhapudur was non-plussed. All the seven members of his family voted in all these elections. "This time, I alone did not get to vote."

R. Krishnakumar of N.G. Narayanasamy Street, who was also a victim of the deletion, rejected the explanation of polling officials at the booths that the voters might not have been at home when the survey had been carried out. "If that were to be true, none of our names should have been in the list. Why only two or three a family were left out?" The officials had no answer to this.

The most shocking omission occurred at the Parsn Sesh Nestle residential complex on Nanjundapuram Road. Residents complained of over 400 names getting deleted. "After voting in the previous elections as a resident of the same colony, this time my wife, Mangalam, and I were denied the right to exercise our franchise," said N. Ravishankar.

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