The Hindu: Mumbai: Wednesday,
March 29, 2017.
Despite
claims that more than 11 lakh names were missing from the electoral rolls
during the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), neither
citizens nor political parties seem interested in pursuing the matter.
In response
to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by activist
Anil Galgali, the BMC’s election department said it has received only 63
complaints in connection with the names missing from the voters’ list.
“Angry
comments were heard all over the city after the election over the controversy.
But after a month, no one seems to be really interested in pursuing the matter
to its logical end,” Mr. Galgali.
Mr. Galgali
had filed his query to find out the exact number of written complaints the
department had received.
According to
the election office administrative officer, the 63 complaints received were
till the end of February. The reply also mentions the number of voters in the
2012 and 2017 civic polls 1,02,86,579 and 91,80, 555 respectively indicating
that the number of voters in Mumbai went down by 11,06,024 in the last five
years.
“However,
with so many complaints about missing names on election day, it was expected
that voters, citizens’ groups and political parties would voluntarily come
forward and file complaints. With only 63 complaints, it shows the negative
attitude of voters and that they are not serious about their own rights,” Mr.
Galgali said.
Following the
elections, the Shiv Sena had even decided to take up the issue in the court and
to file a complaint with the State Election Commission (SEC) in this regard.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, in his first press conference after the BMC
poll results, had declared that the case had to be investigated.
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