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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Missing voters -Divya Trivedi

Missing voters -Divya Trivedi

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published Published on Apr 16, 2019   modified Modified on Apr 16, 2019
-Frontline.in

A large proportion of voters who are left out of the electoral rolls despite having valid voter ID cards are Muslims and Dalits.

Abdul Rahmat, 28, from Kolkata was shocked and confused when his application for enrolment in the electoral rolls was rejected with the comment “not an Indian citizen”. Born in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, he had moved to the city a decade ago and held a white-collar job with an Indian corporate house. “Our family has lived here for generations. It feels odd to have my name struck off the voters list with this comment,” he told Frontline over the phone.

Kailasa Sandeep of Hyderabad, belonging to a backward caste, works with an international automotive company. Born and brought up in Karimnagar, he found the names of half his family left out of the electoral rolls in the run-up to the general election this year. A conscientious citizen, he had kept the authorities informed about any change in personal details like address or phone number and was baffled when his application was rejected with the comment “not an Indian citizen”. He pursued the matter doggedly until his name was finally added back in the rolls. But not every citizen is equally aware of, or insistent on ensuring, their democratic rights. The names of his brother and wife were not added back to the rolls, and they may not be able to vote in the upcoming election, given the limited time left for the Election Commission (E.C.) to act.

The right to vote is an important prerogative of a citizen in a democracy. Shockingly, in the past few months it was found that crores of Indians were no longer eligible to vote. While the problem of names missing from the electoral rolls might not be new, the extent of the problem in this election is alarming. A large chunk of those disenfranchised overnight belong to communities that have suffered under the present regime and are unlikely to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In a tightly contested election where both the BJP and the opposition are desperate to secure a victory, the possibility of foul play cannot be ruled out. The unasked question that even political parties are afraid to raise is whether the BJP is orchestrating a targeted removal of communities at the booth level to ensure a win for itself.

In Maharashtra, the application of 24-year-old Rukhsarbi Qarim Shaikh (name changed) for enrolment in the voters list was rejected by the E.C. with the comment “invalid age”. Born in 1995, she is very much eligible for voting in a country where the minimum age for enfranchisement is 18. Hers was not the only case for rejection on such untenable grounds. Khalid Saifullah, a software engineer whose company, Raylab Technologies, devised a phone application called Missing Voters to identify the names absent in the voters list and have them registered with the E.C., said: “We came across more than 50 women in Maharashtra who were rejected like this when they applied for inclusion in the voters list through our app.” .

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Frontline.in, 26 April, 2019, https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article26781550.ece?homepage=true


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