Names missing, many voters return sans exercising franchise

Wardha: The polling for Wardha Lok Sabha seat saw 65% voter turnout at the time of going to the press on Thursday. The fate of 14 candidates will be decided by over 17 lakh voters.
Currently, the seat is being held by BJP’s Ramdas Tadas, who is locked in a straight contest with Congress candidate Charulata Tokas.

“The polling began at 7am. There was no rush at polling booths in early morning hours in rural areas. But after 10am, people started coming out to cast their vote,” said returning officer for the election.

Chaos was reported in several parts of the constituency as many people complained about their names missing from the voters’ list. As a result, some of them returned without exercising their franchise.

Sushma Shambharkar, resident of Mhasala village, said, “I was in the queue for two hours. When I reached the booth at around 11am, I was not able to find my name in the list. The names of all my three family member was in the list. This is first time that I faced this problem,” she said.

Two old women from Pipri village were forced to return without casting their vote. They had their voting list slip provided by the gram panchayat staff, but could not find their names at the booth. This was the scenario at early morning hours across the constituency.

Nagthana villagers had boycotted voting till 2pm, but the district administration assured them that their demands will be fulfilled. Umesh Sarote, Sarpanch of the village, which is 4km away from Wardha, said, “The four-lane highway is being constructed which is cutting our connectivity. We requested the district administration several times to allow a subway or bridge and solve our problem but the authorities did not reply.”

“We have been pursuing all the authorities since a year but in vain,” he added.

Rajesh Wake, a villager, said, “The administration should have considered an overbridge or subway as we will have no way to enter the city. We had decided 15 days ago that we will boycott poll.”

Ankush Masram, another villager said, “Around 2pm, the tehsildar, deputy collector and the contractor visited our village. They assured us that they will arrange a meeting with all other authorities and solve our problem. Finally, we started voting after 2pm.”

Common facilities like drinking water, makeshift shades and wheelchairs promised by the election officials were lacking across the constituency. Voting went on even after 6pm. There were long queues at several booths, including Anji and Arvi.