The missing voters

What do Maruti Suzuki Chairperson R C Bhargava, Apollo Hospitals Vice Chairperson Shobana Kamineni, and I have in common? All three of our names have been deleted from the voter list by the Election Commission. We are not the only ones, there are reports of thousands of people who have complained that their names don't feature on the voter list. This number could increase manifold given that many citizens would not even know how to complain or raise an issue or by the time they realise that their names are missing, it would be too late.

I can personally vouch that I voted in the West Bengal Assembly polls of 2011; I especially travelled from Delhi to Kolkata to vote in 2014. Obviously, after voting in the last two major elections held in the state, one would expect to feature on the voter list. But imagine my shock when a cursory perusal of the Election Commission's National Voters' Service Portal website revealed that I no longer have the right to cast my vote! My mother's name exists (even though she didn't vote in 2014 due to ill-health) but mine doesn't. When I called the EC's helpline for voters, I was told that since I am not residing at the address, my name was deleted as part of EC's 'purification' programme. Even though my Aadhaar card and passport to carry the same address. But was I informed? Was there any official communication of the impinging of my constitutional right to vote? No.

But I would not let matters be. So, I called up a local politician in our area who was witness to me voting both in 2009 and 2014. His party records showed my name till 2014 but this time around, it was deleted. He had no other explanation to offer except that it had happened to many people. This curious situation makes me wonder if the Election Commission has taken into account lakhs of migrant labour (both white and blue collar) who regularly travel for work or stay in other cities for long periods of time. If in the last two elections, those individuals have exercised their right of franchise, what's the logic behind deleting their name?

The Election Commission indeed has the mammoth task of organising the largest elections in the world. But this time there are rampant complaints of ad hoc deletion of names from the voter list based on reasons best known to the Election Commission. The EC's PR drive has not been effective enough to spread awareness among voters ahead of Lok Sabha polls to verify if their names are on the list. Apparently, the EC did release the voter list to political parties to cross-check names but to leave it entirely to them to decide the right of vote ordained to the citizens by the Constitution of India is problematic.

Online check could be done to make sure one's name is on the voter list, but then how many fellow Indians have access or understanding of digital means of checking the voter list? Around 90 crore Indians are eligible to vote this time with almost 13 crore first-time voters. Should it not be the Election Commission's responsibility in the years preceding Lok Sabha polls to ensure that every voter gets a chance to vote? The EC needs to devise a better strategy that leads to increase in the number of voters rather than a decline. And what is the use of Aadhaar cards if their data was not used by the EC to determine who should remain on the voter list?

The numbers are great enough for two social activists in Bengaluru to start an online petition called 'My Vote, My Right' that urges all deleted voters to submit their details. Over 2,000 people have signed this petition, 10,000 have enquired about it, and uncorroborated reports suggest that over 2 lakh voters were deleted in Bengaluru while there are allegations of deletion coming in from parts of Telangana (almost 80,000 couldn't vote), Gujarat, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu. But these numbers don't fully expose the reality that this time many willing voters stand a chance to lose out on the opportunity. As for me, I have applied for a change of constituency and followed up my application with calls to the EC helpline. Since the last date of applying for voter registration and/or change of constituency is allowed till the last date of filing nominations for that phase, I am keeping my fingers crossed that my name will just about make it. But several others will have been cheated of their right to vote. Who will take responsibility for that?

(The writer is a journalist and media entrepreneur. The views expressed are strictly personal)