Known for being a plush neighbourhood in Mumbai, Malabar Hill has often been criticised for its uninspiring response to elections. But this time, when Mumbai went to polls on April 29, the story was different for Malabar Hill. The reason behind it was deletion of names of 10,000 dead people.
According to the Asian Age, EC officials sanitised the voters’ list by deleting the names of non-existent voters, including almost 10,000 dead people. Last year, the Mumbai collector’s office carried out a survey to find out the number of absent, shifted and dead voters in the constituency. Around 25,000 to 30,000 such voters were identified and their names were deleted from the electoral rolls.
Mumbai collector told the Asian Age, “We conducted a survey last year where we identified voters as absent, shifted and dead (ASD). Accordingly, we found 10,000 dead people featured in voting lists. We deleted the names of the deceased voters from the list and we got an improved list of the constituency.”
On the other hand, it was a different story for Colaba assembly. This year, Colaba saw the lowest voter turnout of 45 percent. To which the collector said, the housing societies in Colaba, as usual, didn’t allow election officials to enter their societies. EC officials told the leading daily that, many voters from Colaba constituency have shifted from their registered addresses.
“There is a poor response from high-rises and elite societies. They did not allow our election officers to enter their premises. In the voting lists, there are many IAS officers who have retired and shifted to some other area. But their names remain on the list. This gives the impression that there was poor voter turnout, but the reality is that the electoral rolls need to be updated to get an accurate picture,” the collector told the Asian Age.
