550 north east voters register for polls

NEW DELHI: For Lincoln Zou, a PhD student from Jawaharlal Nehru University who has been in Delhi for seven years now, Wednesday was special. Like him, many queued up at the special day-long voter registration camp held at North Eastern Council Guest House in Chanakyapuri to get themselves enrolled so as to be able to cast their vote in the Lok Sabha elections. For most, the experience was not just about becoming able to exercise their franchise but also a measure to bridge the gap between the north and the northeast as well as register their presence in the capital.

However, most felt publicity was lacking, otherwise there would have been more applicants. About 550 applications were received by evening at this special camp on a day when the voter enrolment for those who will get to vote in the Lok Sabha polls came to a close.

Chief electoral officer Vijay Dev said this was an attempt to integrate the residents from northeast into the voting process. "It was an attempt to reach out and facilitate registration for our friends from the northeastern states. For instance, students sometimes find it difficult to get their landlords to verify their address proof. In such cases, it has been decided that the various state centres in Delhi like Arunachal Bhawan, and Sikkim Bhavan will step in," Dev said.

On why he had come to enrol at the voter camp, Lincoln said, "We were not involved in politics as the politicians never took an interest in us. However, things have changed after the recent cases of harassment, beatings and rapes of northeast Indians in Delhi. Many are realizing that they can no longer remain silent spectators."

"Politicians ignore us because they do not see us as a lucrative voters’ bank," explains Linda Newmai, who has lived in Delhi for 10 years working for a national political party, but came forward to register as a voter in Delhi only on Wednesday. "We have to take action as voters and force politicians to look into our issues," she asserted.

Many of the people who applied for enrolment as voters were surprised at the expeditious application process and described the staff as helpful. Naomi Haumuanching Zou from Manipur has been working as a nurse in Delhi for the past six years. Not only did she find the registration process easy she also felt that for the first time, northeastern Indians living in Delhi have been given a form of recognition. It was a sentiment shared by many of those present at the camp.
"As we only heard about this through friends and social media sites, the turnout is not as large as I would have hoped," said Karpa Mardi, a businesswoman from Arunachal Pradesh who arrived in Delhi in 2004.