1L voters missing on Kovai list: BJP chief
In a single booth at Kavundampalayam, names of 830 have allegedly been deleted
COIMBATORE: BJP state president K Annamalai on Friday said names of over lakh voters had gone missing from the electoral list of Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.
“There are several discrepancies as names of many, who came from abroad to vote were deleted, the members of the same family were assigned in different and faraway booths and in one single booth, names of 830 persons were deleted. Even though such issues are common, it has happened on a massive scale in this poll,” he said, while addressing reporters in Coimbatore.
Further, BJP state president Annamalai said, if names of over one lakh votes had gone missing, then it raises a doubt, if the Election Commission has done its duty in a free and fair manner.
“It also raises suspicion if the commission has done its prepoll preparedness properly and if there was any political interference. Particularly, the traditional BJP voters were denied their right,” he said.
Demanding conduct of repoll in booths, where names of voters were missing in large numbers, the BJP leader asked, “What is the point in holding polls after deleting the names of 60 per cent of voters in a booth? How will the people get confidence in democracy? All these issues were documented and submitted as complaints to election authorities.”
BJP Mahila Morcha president and Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan said that names of north Indian voters and Brahmins were intentionally removed from the electoral list in several areas.
“In every booth, the names of voters, who were considered to be supporters of BJP, were deleted. We will demand the Election Commission to conduct a re-poll in a booth in Teppakulam, where a significant number of north Indian voters were removed and in another booth in Kavundampalayam,” she said.
Earlier, a group of voters resorted to sit in protest alleging that names of around 830 voters went missing from the electoral list in Kavundampalayam area in Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.
Large number of voters who turned up to exercise their franchise at a booth in Angappa School were disappointed as their names did not figure in the electoral list. Of the total 1,353 voters in the local body polls, only the names of 523 voters figured in the list for this parliamentary poll, the residents claimed.