1.25 lakh double jeopardies for polls

One the eve of the elections, city techie is one among lakhs who find their name on two voters' lists

1.25 lakh double jeopardies for polls

One the eve of the elections, city techie is one among lakhs who find their name on two voters' lists

A day before the state goes to poll, Pune resident Jayesh Agarwal's revelation to MiD DAY has once again put the spotlight on the flaws of the Election Commission.

The techie and Art of Living teacher yesterday realised that his name was on two voter lists one from the Cantonment constituency, where he lived earlier, and the other from Kothrud, where he now lives. This means he now has two effective voter ID cards.

What's worse is that this is not a lone case. There are nearly 1.25 lakh people in Pune who have more than one ID card and have their names in more than one constituency, reveal District Collector Chandrakant Dalwi.

Jayesh's case
Jayesh moved from the station area in Cantonment to Baner in Kothrud earlier this year. Following procedure he applied for a change of address and another card.

He got his second voter ID card soon after the Lok Sabha elections and assumed the necessary changes had been made. He realised that was not the case yesterday, when he went to his old residence and on a whim decided to check the voters list at one of the party offices there. He was shocked to find his name was still there. It was, however, too late to rectify the scenario for today's polls.

"As a responsible citizen, I will be voting only from Kothrud. But the fact that my name exists in both constituencies shows the flaws of the system. What if somebody else votes from the previous constituency in my name?" asked Jayesh.

He added, "Several of my friends who have shifted their residences have the same story to tell."

Jayesh said he would meet the concerned authorities after the polls with a fresh application, requesting them to delete his name from the old constituency.

Earlier polls
Before the Lok Sabha elections in April, Abhay Chajed, the city president of Congress, had presented a list of 30,000 voters whose names appeared twice to the district collector. Said Chajed, "Since the number of voters in Pune district exceeds 60 lakh, such problems can happen. It is also the duty of every citizen who moves from one constituency to another to inform the authorities."

Ranjit Shirole, the MNS candidate from Shivajinagar, said, "We do get queries from a number of people who have their names in more than one constituencies. Most of them are simple people whose intention is only to get things rectified, so that there is no scope of misuse. But authorities have to take care to see that voters' lists do not bear double names. It gives scope to bogus voting."

Dalwi admitted that there were cases of people having more than one ID card and being listed in more than one constituency, but said, "There is no possibility of bogus voting because if the same person goes to vote in another constituency, then the indelible voting ink will give him away. If some other person goes in to vote with a fake identity card, he will also be exposed as the list of nearly 25,000 people whose name could be appearing in more than one booth has been given to the presiding officers of respective booths.