About 50,000 couldn't vote in Gujarat due to faulty list

AHMEDABAD: As Many as 50,000 people could not exercise their franchise due to confusion in the voters list in the second phase of the state assembly election, the polling for which was held on Sunday.

“Nearly 50,000 people could not vote in the second phase due to discrepancies in the list. Most of them were from Ahmedabad district, followed by Vapi and Surat,” said state chief electoral officer VK Babbar. Several people across the two regions, north and central Gujarat, where polling took place on Sunday, raised objections to political parties and collectorate officials after they found their names missing from the list.

Mr Babar said there were as many as 3.66 crore eligible voters in Gujarat and the EC had set up helplines and information centers in all districts to explain about the formalities much ahead of the elections. “All the district collectors have been asked to look into the various complaints and we will ensure that those whose names were not in the list would be included soon,” said the official.

He added that those who missed out on voting were not from any particular community and were inclusive of all communities. Nearly 65% polling was reported on Sunday for the second phase in which 598 candidates, including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who is seeking a re-election, were in fray.

The official said that there were no other complaints from the political parties barring the names of persons missing from voters list and non-issuance of voter identity cards.