MCD polls: Voters across city claim their names were missing in elections list

No official count of such voters was available as the state election commission (SEC) said that they did not receive any formal complaint

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 wait in a queue to cast their vote at a polling booth in a government school at Zakir Nagar for the MCD elections on Sunday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

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 voted across 250 wards in a high-stakes battle for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Sunday to decide who will rule the civic body that rivals the state government in its reach and range of services that it administers to over 95% of city’s population.

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, “The SEC has merely adopted the electoral roll prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for conduct of elections to MCD, and as such the 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.

BJP MP from north-east Delhi Manoj Tiwari also claimed that 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 cancellation of the polls and re-election in the ward, and alleged that it was a conspiracy by the Delhi government.

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

AAP MLA Vishesh Ravi demanded re-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”. “Due to this mess up, a total of 668 voters could not cast their vote in the MCD elections. Strict action should be taken against the officials responsible for this,” said Ravi in a statement.

The SEC did not respond to Ravi’s allegations.

Pardeep Gupta, who lives in east Delhi’s Ganesh Nagar, said three members of family could not cast their votes on Sunday. “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, Shakarpur, polling station 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. “I have visited all the polling centres in the area but I was turned away. No one can find my name in the list. It has been intentionally removed,” Singh said.

Kuldeep Singh, a 35-year-old resident of Vishnu Garden, said he voted in the 2020 Vidhan Sabha elections, but could not do so on Sunday as his name was missing from the list. “The officials at the polling station said they could not find my name in the records. Despite having the valid identity proof, I was not allowed to vote and only my mother could vote.” he said.

An official in the CEO office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the CEO office has so far not received any complaints regarding deletion of names. “Once he CEO office receives complaints regarding wrongful removal of names from the voters’ list, we will forward it to the district election official concerned and get an inquiry conducted,” the official said.