Mumbai's missing names: Conspiracy or goof-up?

Thursday’s Lok Sabha polling in Mumbai has been celebrated for its higher than usual turnout, but the day had its share of nasty surprises for thousands of citizens including prominent ones like HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, well-known lawyer Ram Jethmalani and Bombay Stock Exchange chairman Ashishkumar Chauhan.

Even as Election Commissioner HS Brahma apologised on Friday for the massive goof-up accepting responsibility on behalf of the poll panel, theories are flying thick and fast over whether the missing names are part of a conspiracy or just a case of plain error.

“I am finding it hard to believe that there was a conspiracy. On 1 January every year, the electoral roll is revised every year so that names of those who passed away are removed and those who shifted are also changed. This time if I am correct, the summary revision was done on 23 September last year and again on 1 January this year. Every time the recognised political parties are given copies of the rolls but they don’t bother until the polls are near,” former chief election commissioner Navin Chawla told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion.

“But I do think that the Election Commission needs to go the extra mile for the prominent citizens. It is a difficult situation,” he said.

Senior journalist and RTI activist Vinita Deshmukh was not ready to forgive the poll panel so easily.

“This is a huge conspiracy. It is not enough for the Election Commission to say sorry. Why is the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party defending the Election Commission? Actually, it is tough both to enter and get out of the voters’ list. In this case the names of the thinking voters have been deleted,” Deshmukh said.

BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi sought a proper investigation.

“When the Election Commission is telling people to vote they must also ensure that the voters’ list is updated. But there is a necessity for a proper investigation here. Whether it was a conspiracy or dereliction of duty must be found out by a suo motu by investigation by the Election Commission,” she said.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha felt that blaming the poll panel entirely was not correct.

“It is a mockery of the democratic institutions if words like conspiracy are so easily used. The educated citizens need to be be proactive as well and they could checked the list on the internet. The Election Commission has done a tremendous job across the country and if there are any lapses, it should be corrected. The Election Commission will get another opportunity later this year when the Maharashtra Assembly polls are due and they should stand up to it,” he said.

Advocate Archit Jaykar, who took part in the discussion, was surprised that the names simply disappeared.

“If a person has voted for the last three times it is only natural that he or she would think that the name is still there,” Jaykar said.