Topical

Voters mising

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Voters missing

Shashank Purandare

I am not at all surprised with what transpired in Maharashtra and Mumbai region in particular.

Maharashtra registered the lowest voting percentage in this year's election. There are a variety of reasons for this. The political parties would of course blame the opposing parties and election commision. That is only to be expected. The BJP knows it is coming back to power while opposition did not have a chance to begin with.

The election commision releases the voter's list well in advance. It is available online with a click of button where one can confirm if his/her name is present in the current list. The EC gives some time for the voters to add their names if they are not there. Honestly, how many voters do this pre-verification? Very few. If you are not doing this, only you are to be blamed.

I heard a few stories which left me laughing. One was of an NRI who said that he came all the way from USA only to find his name missing. Surely, you are joking. Who spends a few lakhs of rupees to only come and vote? And even if you did, why did not you check your name in the list before coming on internet sitting in USA?

I met a couple who was searching for their name. But they had not bothered to register for the last twenty years!!

People shift residences but do not bother to re-register with EC. And they are to lazy to go and vote where they resided earlier.

Lastly, Ec does not have a permanent staff to upload the data. Hence some discrepancies would remain. All the more reason for the voters to be vigilant.

So, bottom line is, you are yoself responsible if your name does not appear in the list! You have no right to go to the polling centre and create chaos!!!

Mr Sudhir Mungantiwar gave a correct reaction, He said we were busy abusing each other and forgot to mobilise voters to make sure that their name appeared in the list.

Now we come to low turnout. I went for voting at 7 am. The outside temperature was 31 degrees. Imagine what would have happened during the afternoon. The opoosition is now demanding that EC should have given better shelters for the queue. Why shout after the fact? Why didn't you shout when facilities were being created. The reason is obvious! They were busy abusing others! So please do not shed crocodile tears now.

I have written in my earlier blogs that election should not be held in hot climate. But who cares for the voter??

The last reason is fragmentation of political parties. Instead of four, this time there were seven party fragments. The candidates were decided at the last moment. Normally the candidates do voter mobilisation. But if you do not know if you are going to be the party candidate, why would you work before hand???

That, in the nutshell is the story of our democracy. Now the opposition will cry out loud that BJP came to power ith minority voting. So be it. These are the fruits of flawed democracy.

Lastly, those who did not vote have absolutely no right to complain about the incoming government. As a voter, you have failed!!!!