Bengaluru: Traders upset over deletion of names from electoral roll, suspect conspiracy

Bengaluru, Apr 18: A large section of the Marwadi trader community of the city was in for a rude shock as many found their names missing from the electoral roll when they turned up for voting in the Lok Sabha elections Thursday and alleged it was a 'conspiracy'. Upset over not being able to vote in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections held for 14 constituencies, including three in the city, several members of the community said those whose names were missing had exercised their franchise in the Karnataka Assembly elections in May last year. BJP alleged large scale 'illegal' deletion of voters names from the electoral roll and demanded a repoll after rectifying it. In a complaint lodged with the state Chief Electoral Officer, the head of state legal head of BJP M Vinod Kumar and senior counsel Vivek Reddy claimed there was mass indiscriminate deletion of voters' names. The officials have purposefully and deliberately deleted without any reason just to render undue official favour to the ruling coalition (Congress-JDS). Though the voters resided in the same address, purposefully their names had been deleted," it alleged. Sources in the CEO office said the complaint had been forwarded to the District Electoral Officer of Bengaluru for necessary action. "I am living in Nagarathpet for the past 20 years and cast my vote in the 2018 assembly election but today when I went to vote, I found my name missing," Jogaram, who belongs to the traders community, said. He claimed in his locality at least 400 to 500 people from his community complained about their names missing. Another trader, Mahendra Jain said his name too was missing from the electoral roll. "My voter ID itself is 15-year-old which I got the day I shifted to this place but today it does not exist," he said. He also said most people of his community found their names missing. ."Is it possible that an entire locality has vanished in the thin air? A major conspiracy has happened with the trader community. It is rigging.. All the Jains and Marwadis were identified and their names deleted from the electoral roll,"Jain alleged. Bharamal Jain said he along with his family went to cast their vote and found their names missing. "So far as I know at least 15,000 to 16,000 names were deleted illegally. This is not a fair election," a visibly upset Bharamal Jain said. Source: Vartha Bharathi