Both Congress, as well as the BJP, are all geared up to fight the upcoming election in the state.
Winning entirely depends on people casting their votes for either party. But what happens when people who want to vote are unable to cast their votes?
Many people are unable to vote as their names are conveniently missing from the electoral rolls.
This issue has been brought to light by senior leaders belonging to Congress when they met the State Election Commission officials on March 2 late in the evening.
Led by Roshan Baig, Shivajinagar Constituency MLA, Congress alleged that most of the missing names belong to a minority community and their names were missing in minority-dominated areas.
For instance, in Pulakeshinagar assembly constituency, there are 21,831 missing households and in Shivajinagar it is 8,002. Likewise in Hubli Dharwad East, there are 11,981 missing households and in Mangalore City North it is 18,414 missing households.
party cross-checked the electoral rolls of 2013 and 2018, some 30-35 lakh voters names were deleted. Many, he claimed, could be due to deaths and various other proper reasons.
“But what is alarming is that from one family there is only one voter and the rest 3-4 voters are missing,” he said. He added that it is understandable if there are about 1000 households with just one voter but in many cases, there are 10,000 families with just one voter on the electoral roll.
However, Congress spokesperson Aiyshwarya Mahadev alleged, “This could be a ploy of the other party to take away what is seen as the Congress’ conventional vote bank.”
According to her, some 18 lakh minority community voters’ names have been deleted from the electoral rolls.
