Missing names, EVM glitches irk Mumbai voters on last day of polling

Party workers outside multiple polling booths witnessed prospective voters turning back when they could not find their names on lists

Mumbai: Missing names from electoral rolls could be one of the major contributors to the low voter turnout in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Monday. Party workers outside multiple polling booths witnessed prospective voters turning back when they could not find their names on lists, despite voting from the same constituencies in previous elections. In many cases, oddly, names of only some family members featured as others were missing. The punishing heat and glitches in EVMs further soured the experience.

Mumbai, India. May 20, 2024: People queue up to vote outside a polling station in the Ghatkopar area during the fifth phase of national elections in Mumbai. May 2024. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

Shrirang Rohidas Mane, 76, who travelled from Satara to Mumbai, was saddened to find his name missing from the list from a booth in Dharavi. “I was born here and take pride in never missing a vote. My entire family managed to vote, but my name was missing. How did it get deleted,” asked Mane, after checking all the booths in Dharavi.

51-year-old Tushar Desai’s name was missing from a booth in Bhandup, despite him not missing an opportunity to cast his vote since the age of 18. He blamed it on “mismanagement”. “I tried to find my name on apps and even the old list, but it was of no use,” he said, at the booth in Bhandup village.

In Vakola, 19 names of voters from one residential building were missing as they had shifted because their old building was under redevelopment. Their names “didn’t exist” on the online list. “I lost my right to vote,” said Vilot Muniz, 65. “Even worse, they made errors in the gender and spellings of my children’s names on the voters’ slips.”

In the face of such lapses, voters had had to dash around between many booths, with faint hope of finding their names.

Rupa Chinai, a voter from Breach Candy was on the verge of returning without voting as her name was not in her building’s list; she found it in the neighbouring building’s list. Nidhi Goel, 41, had an almost similar experience. “We were asked to go from Santacruz to Khar to meet a booth official, but there were 100 people there with the issue of missing names. Many married women found only their husbands’ names on the lists. No reason was given for the discrepancy,” said Goel.

Some people working in the unorganised sector, who turned up at the booths with their belongings, including their tools and cell phones, were turned away as there was no space for to keep them. “As they had to return to their work, they simply left,” said Deepak Sonavne, who was at a booth in Goregaon.

Many places had insufficient support to beat the heat, such as lack of adequate amount of bottled water, fans and shade over the area where queues were formed. This was acutely felt in Mankhurd – even the ECI workers at tables checking the electoral rolls looked visibly uncomfortable. Voters opted to wait under trees and some asked for ORS and water from medical stations.

In slum pockets of Dahisar, citizens complained about queues for one booth while the other lay deserted. Such was the experience of voters in Tambe School, Dahisar (E). “As I am unwell, I did not want to spend too much time outside. I returned the third time to cast my vote at 2:30pm, when the queue was just as thick,” said Prathamesh Patil.

In Sion’s Pratikshanagar, Mridula Sanjay Ranjit, 18, fainted. “I think it was the high humidity, heat and my empty stomach that led to it,” she said, despite arriving at the booth at 7:45 am.

At certain spots, EVM glitches also slowed down the process, as was the case of polling booths in Ramkali Vidya Mandir, Bhandup West. Similar complaints about some machines were made at Parkside, Ghatkopar West. An EVM was reported stuck for over an hour at Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd.

At Hiranandani Complex, Powai, a serpentine queue was seen when an EVM malfunctioned and had to replaced. Dhananjay Jadhav, an assistant returning officer of Chandivali, said, “There was an error in the EVM during both the mock poll and real poll.”

All these reasons contributed to the additional chief electoral officer, Kuran Kulkarni, issuing a statement that polling would continue past the mandated deadline, “till the last person who stands in queue at 6 pm exercises his right”.