The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Voting is a prestigious issue

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Friday, May 30, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Voting is a prestigious issue

S.Ramu

“It is demeaning to live if you don’t find your name in the voters’ list”

— PHOTO: SINGAM VENKATA RAMANA

Right to vote: Ailaiah showing his voter identity card and ration card at a polling booth at Dilawarpur of Alair mandal in Nalgonda district on Thursday.

DILAWARPUR (NALGONDA DT.): For some lethargic educated people, vote may not be a “big deal” but the 67-year-old Mekala Ailaiah of this tiny village in Alair mandal it is a prestigious issue.

Mr. Ailaiah gave a tough time for the poll officials when he found that his name was missing from the electoral rolls. Shell-shocked by the “deadly mistake” committed by the officials, he sobbed like a child in front of other voters.

“It is demeaning to live if you don’t find your name in the voters’ list. If you are not enrolled as a voter, what does it mean? You are no more on the earth,” Mr. Ailaiah told The Hindu. He showed his voter identify card (No: AP/41/291/555034) and ration card in support of his claim.

He took up the matter to the poll officials and registered his protest for “unceremoniously excluding” his name from the voters’ list. “I never migrated to other place. I don’t know why they deleted my name from the list. They might have thought that I had passed away,” the furious farmer maintained adding that he had been exercising his franchise in every election without fail.

As he was sent away from the polling booth due to non-inclusion of his name in the voters’ list, Mr. Ailaiah staged a dharna at the polling booth. He demanded that he must be allowed to cast his vote, “since I am alive and I am very much eligible to vote.”

All Opposition parties joined hands with Mr. Ailaiah and staged a dharna in protest against the “injustice” done to the elderly person. Opposition leaders took cudgels on his behalf and bargained for a vote for him resulting in the halting of polling for sometime.

“Ailaiah is very upset with this development. He says that this life doesn’t have a meaning without having a right to vote,” the mandal secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Chekka Venkatesh told this reporter. “He is so sensitive and he may resort to any extreme step, if the officials deny him to vote,” he maintained. Incidentally, his son Mallesh is the upa-sarpanch of the village.

However the poll officials didn’t allow the senior voter to vote much to the chagrin of the “victim” and the political leaders.

“We can’t allow him to vote as his name is not figured in the electoral rolls. We don’t know why his name was deleted even after the verification. We feel sorry for him,” a poll official said. Later the revenue officials met Mr. Ailaiah and conveyed their inability for helping him. They assured him that he would be given a vote in the next elections. After a great deal of persuasion by the officials, Mr. Ailaiah went home with a heavy heart.

However the visiting press persons and educated youth appreciated Mr. Ailaiah’s sincerity towards democracy and his belief in ballot.

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