Renowned Social activist and a Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal was in a hurry on Tuesday, the day of polling in his constituency in Ghaziabad when he drove to the airport without casting his ballot. Perhaps it was his anger and way of using the ‘right to reject’ choice. But when the press and the media teams from TV news channels chased him down to the airport to enquire as to why he didn’t cast his ballot, he realized his mistake and came back to exercise his right to franchise. But to his utter surprise, Kejriwal didn’t find his name in the voter list, available at the said polling station.
Kejriwal’s wasn’t the only case, many voters here in Lucknow also found their names missing from the voter lists. Parvati Singh, wife of Dr Ram Pratap who lives in Sector-O, Aliganj, Lucknow, had to come back without casting her ballot as she found her name missing from the voter list. She works with the state government and as it was compulsory for the state government employees to show the mark of voting following directives from the state government or else a day’s salary would be deducted from the person’s account.
She said the Election Commission had been advertising about the benefits of electoral reforms, but when there would be no names of the genuine voters in the list, what was the purpose of sending personal teams to homes of all individuals during the door to door electorate verification drive?
Well despite a few hiccups in the electoral rolls, the main reason for enthusiasm among the people associated with the awareness drive remained to be the record turnout as the electorate came out from their homes this time in large numbers and participated in the democratic process. This will ensure candidates with good background win in the elections and it will also force the representatives to do more work on the ground rather than contesting elections on oratory and false promises.
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