By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Muzaffarpur: Yesterday was a shocking day for Muslim residents in the town of Muzaffarpur when thousands of them found their name struck from the official list of voters. In some localities like Sadpura and Maripur they came out on the street to protest the irregularities.
While voting was not cancelled on any affected booth in the Muzaffarpur town assembly constituency, the DM by evening announced formation of a committee to look into the lapses.
Iqbal Sami, General Secretary and Spokesperson, RJD, Bihar
What was surprising for them is that their names were written on the list but it was stamped ‘Deleted’. The genuine voters with valid Election Photo ID were shocked to see that.
On the basis of 2005 election we knew there are more than 2.7 lakh votes but all of a sudden we came to know there are only 2.34 lakh votes. But we had not imagined that only our votes have been deleted at massive level,” said Mohd Jamal, the RJD-LJP candidate who was giving tough fight to BJP’s Suresh Sharma.
“There seems to be a conspiracy behind this because genuine voter lists are stamped Deleted. It seems it has been done after my candidacy became clear. This has been done by the DM under the influence of rival parties,” he adds.
Mohd Jamal, LJP-RJD candidate for Muzaffarpur Assembly seat
But this was not the only loophole in the poll system. At many places EVMs were set such that it was confusing for common people.
“I visited some booths in Sadpura locality and found them confusing. I warned the officials to take the issue to higher authorities and they apologized and fixed the error,” said Jamal talking to TCN in his office in the evening soon after the road block by Maripur residents was lifted after his intervention. The people were angry at the deletion of their names from the voters list.
“The district collectors and other officers who are incharge of elections have been appointed by the state government of JDU-BJP. They are communal minded. They have deliberately deleted the names of Muslims and poor people,” said Iqbal Sami, General Secretary and Spokesperson of RJD in Bihar. “Those whose names were deleted were with RJD,” said Sami holding state government responsible for the whole irregularity.
Voters list
“On one hand, Election Commission appeals to people to vote as it will strengthen democracy but when the masses go to vote they find their names deleted even though they have genuine Election ID and names listed in the list but they are either declared dead or deleted, said Sami.