The excitement of casting votes in the Lok Sabha polls was short-lived for some electors in Delhi, who found their names missing from the voters' list on Saturday, even as they claimed that their documents were in order. Younus Salim and Azim Khan, employees at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, went to exercise their franchise at Dr Rajendra Prasad Kendriya Vidyalaya in the President's Estate only to find their names missing from the voters' list.
"My husband's name is missing from the list. I have cast my vote and even my children could cast their votes," said Shakeela Khan, Azim Khan's wife. "We were here to vote for a change in the country but my name was not there in the list. Only my name was missing while the names of my family members were there. I have valid documents. We cannot exercise our rights in a democracy," Azim Khan said. Salim showed his Aadhaar card and voter card. "I had cast my vote in the 2022 MCD polls. How is it that my name is not there in the voters' list? We are employees here," he said.
Shahnawaz Ahmed, a carpenter in northwest Delhi, had a similar story to narrate. He had to return without casting his vote at a polling booth in Jahangirpuri. Ahmed was accompanied to the polling booth by one of his female relatives who could cast her vote as her name was there on the list. "I am carrying my Aadhaar card. The polling agents here are saying that I cannot vote as my name is not there on the voters' list," Ahmed said. All seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi went to polls in the sixth phase of the seven-phase election on Saturday. A total of 1.52 crore voters -- 82 lakh men, 69 lakh women and 1,228 third-gender voters -- were eligible to exercise their franchise at more than 13,000 polling booths set up across the constituencies, according to officials.