Many voters said they couldn’t either locate their polling booths or find their names on the electoral rolls.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Voting to the newly carved 250 wards under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) witnessed confused electors, on Sunday, with some stating that they were unaware of the change in their wards.
Voting for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was marred by instances of confusion among voters on Sunday, with many returning from polling booths without exercising their franchise.
Several voters Today News 24 spoke to, couldn’t either locate their polling booths or find their names on the electoral rolls.
Babu Das, 47, who works as a newspaper distributor, stepped out of his house with his sister and nephew at 8 a.m. to vote without having to stand in a queue. However, till 11.30 a.m., he could not find his name and his sister’s on the electoral rolls.
“I have been to three polling stations, but could only find my nephew’s name on the rolls of one booth. Polling agents said my name has been removed from the list. But they did not tell me why,” he said. Mr. Das, who lives with his family in Shahpur Jat, recently shifted a few blocks away. This, he believes, might have something to do with the discrepancy. “We updated our address two months ago when some poll officials came to us for verification,” he said. Shahpur Jat, which was earlier part of the Greater Kailash ward, was shifted to the Chirag Delhi ward in the delimitation exercise.
Mohammed Mehsan, a resident of Jahangirpuri’s Block-C, decided not to vote after finding out that he had been shifted from the Jahangirpuri ward to the Bhalswa ward. He said he discovered that the area where he lives had been shifted to another ward only after reaching the polling booth.
‘Did not vote’
“My choice of candidate was based on the assumption that I would be voting in Jahangirpuri. I decided not to vote because I have no clue about the candidates in Bhalswa. I am disappointed. Maybe I should have checked beforehand,” said Mr. Mehsam.
Mohammad Ahsan, 45, went to two polling booths in Chand Bagh, where he lives, before deciding to return home without casting his ballot.
“First, I went to the booth where I voted the last time [in the 2020 Assembly election]. I was asked to go to another booth after being told that my booth number had changed. At the second booth, I was told that my name was not on the electoral rolls. So, I ended up not voting,” Mr. Ahsan said.
Several voters in the Civil Lines ward, in north Delhi, also had problems in locating their designated polling booths. Mahesh, 35, went to three different polling booths but couldn’t find his name on the electoral rolls of any of them.
In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the State Election Commission (SEC) said, “The preparation of electoral rolls and additions/ deletions thereof are done by the Election Commission of India only, whose representative in Delhi is the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi. State Election Commission only adopts the electoral roll of ECI on “as is where is” basis and the State Election Commission has no role in any additions or deletions of the names of the electors in the roll.”
The Bakhtawarpur ward saw the highest voting (65.74%) and the Andrews Ganj ward saw the lowest turnout (33.74%).
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the people to “vote for those who will clean the city, not those who create hurdles”. Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said the BJP is all set to win the MCD for the fourth time in a row. “People have voted against the scams and false publicity of the Kejriwal government,” Mr. Gupta said.
In the 2017 civic polls, out of the 270 wards (polling did not happen in two seats), the BJP won 181, AAP 48 and Congress 27.