KUMBAKONAM, July 23, 2015
Voters’ list replete with errors
- SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
“Dead” voters turn up at public offices in Thanjavur district
Allegations of wrongful entries in the electoral rolls have been levelled against the authorities in Kumbakonam Assembly Constituency in Thanjavur district.
“Dead” voters and “shifted” voters physically presented themselves to disprove the entries in electoral rolls. On the other hand, DMK’s G. Anbalagan representing Kumbakonam in the Assembly charged that there had been “deletions” in certain areas of the constituency.
Coming as they do after an extensive updating of the revised electoral rolls and linking them with Aadhaar details, the charges of wrongful entries are difficult to be wished away as errors, the voters said. There are allegations of multiple entries for a single voter too as deletion as deceased or shifted.
Some who scrutinised the electoral rolls on display at public offices were shocked to find their names among the dead and shifted. At Sakkottai village, near Kumbakonam, 142 deletions from the rolls were effected as absent, dead, or shifted.
While 79 voters were marked as absent, 43 were listed shifted, and 20 as deceased. But a verification of them revealed astounding information like in Part No 105 of the rolls where Anjalai wife of Chinnaiyan who was marked as dead is treading the Sakkottai village.
In fact, Mr. Anbalagan himself is at the receiving end of the exercise as his brother G. Unmai and daughter-in-law Divya had been marked absent while the fact is they are very much present in the house. Similarly in Kumbakonam Municipality ward 2, Part No 178, Aachi wife of Dakshinamurthy and her son Selvan have been deleted as dead from the rolls. They displayed their Aadhaar cards and ration cards to buttress their claims to life.
In Ulloor panchayat’s Venkatesa Nagar, the name of Jayalakshmi, wife of Krishnamurthy, was deleted from the rolls as deceased while she was seething with anger at being dubbed dead.
“There have been errors galore in electoral rolls entry work in Kumbakonam Assembly Constituency with many deletions affecting genuine voters. Whether they are erroneous or wanton, we want the wrongful entries corrected at the earliest,” says Mr. Anbalagan.
DMK leader’s brother’s name deleted in Kumbakonam
Names of several voters deleted in Ulloor panchayat segment