Delhi MCD elections 2022: Across stations, many voters say names not in list

No official count of such voters was available as the state election commission (SEC) said that they did not receive any formal complaint. However, leaders from both the BJP, the Congress and the AAP alleged that names of several voters were deliberately deleted to stop them from voting.

People at several polling stations across Delhi had to return without casting their vote in the MCD elections on Sunday as their names were allegedly missing from the voters’ list.

Voters seen standing in queues to cast their vote inside a polling booth made in a government school at Zakir Nagar for the MCD elections 2022 in New Delhi, India, on Sunday, December 4, 2022. (Photo by Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

No official count of such voters was available as the state election commission (SEC) said that they did not receive any formal complaint. However, leaders from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also alleged that names of several voters were deliberately deleted to stop them from exercising their franchise.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Anil Chaudhary was among those who failed to cast his vote in Kondli. He blamed the BJP for getting his name deleted from the list. “It (BJP) did the same by delimiting wards, and is doing it now by removing names from the voters’ list. My name is neither in the voter list nor in the deleted list. My wife has voted. I have voted in the Lok Sabha elections and I voted in the 2020 Delhi assembly elections,” Choudhary, a former MLA, said.

Later, a Congress delegation lodged a complaint with the state election commission, alleging that the names from the voters list were removed deliberately to influence the election results.

A SEC official who asked not to be named said, “SEC has merely adopted the electoral roll prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for conduct of elections to MCD, and as such SEC has no jurisdiction to make any additions or deletions therein.”

The official added that Congress delegation was advised to take up the matter with the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi, and that their complaint has been forwarded to CEO’s office.

The BJP MP from North-East Delhi Manoj Tiwari also claimed that the names of at least 450 voters in Subhash Mohalla ward in his constituency have been deleted from the voters’ list “because they were BJP supporters”. Tiwari also demanded a re-election in the ward, alleging “a conspiracy by the Delhi government.”

Neither the Delhi government nor the AAP commented on the matter.

AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi demanded a fresh poll at Karol Bagh (ward No. 82) alleging that names of 668 voters from SP Mukherjee Market, Faiz Road, was not “added to the revised electoral list”. “Strict action should be taken against the officials responsible for this,” said Ravi in a statement.

SEC did not respond to Ravi’s allegations.

Pardeep Gupta, who lives in east Delhi’s Ganesh Nagar, said that three members of his family could not cast their vote. “The names of three members of my family have been deleted even though we have not moved out of our address in south Ganesh Nagar,” said Gupta who went to the Ambedkar College in Shakarpur to cast his vote.

At the polling station set up in the C-block MCD school in Defence Colony, Puran Singh, 71, said that he checked his name at many stations but it could not be found. Singh, a daily wage labourer, said he lives near Sewa Nagar Basti, near Arya Samaj Mandir.

An official in the CEO office said that they have not received any complaints regarding deletion of names. “Once the CEO office receives complaints, we will forward it to the district election official concerned and get an inquiry conducted,” the official said.