E-Paper
Jharkhand’s only NRI voter wants to cast ballot
Jharkhand’s only non-resident Indian (NRI) voter Indranil Sinha is disappointed he will not be able to cast his vote for the leader of his choice in the assembly polls.
Jharkhand’s only non-resident Indian (NRI) voter Indranil Sinha is disappointed he will not be able to cast his vote for the leader of his choice in the assembly polls.
A senior researcher at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, Indranil enrolled in the electoral list of his native Deoghar district through the internet, but missed voting in the April-May general election as his leave was not sanctioned.
“I got voting permission within a month. But I could not make it to the polling station during the parliamentary polls due to my professional commitments,” Indranil told HT through email.
He then requested the Election Commission of India (ECI) to make some arrangement so that he could cast his vote online or at the Indian embassy.
Sources in the passport and census offices say around 15,000 people from Jharkhand live in other countries, but do not bother registering their names in electoral rolls. Election commission officials say this is because there is no provision to cast one’s vote online.
This is what is stopping Toronto-based IT professional Anurag Sinha from exercising his franchise in his native city, Dhanbad even though, he too, like Indranil, wants to vote.
Anurag’s father Jitendra Kumar Sinha, director of Indian School of Learning, says travelling home to vote is not a practical option for someone living abroad.
