Plea in Madras HC seeks special polling arrangement for names 'missing' from Coimbatore voter list

Chennai: A Coimbatore resident on Saturday filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking direction to the Election Commission (EC) to make special arrangements for those whose names were 'deleted' from the electoral list.

The petitioner, R. Suthanthira Kanna, a doctor employed in Australia who filed the writ petition, also wanted the EC to not declare the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency results until this polling takes place.

In an affidavit filed through his counsel M. Mathan Raj, the petitioner said, he came to India on April 13 especially to cast his vote for the Lok Sabha elections held on April 19.

In the petition, Suthanthira Kanna said that he found that his name and that of his wife had been removed from the electoral rolls, though their daughter's name had been retained.

He immediately lodged a complaint on EC's portal on April 15 and received an acknowledgement, but there was no resolution.

The petitioner added that the names of thousands of people, too, had been rescinded from the electoral rolls and they were also not able to cast their votes on April 19.

The petitioner also listed out the names of 61 people whose names were found to be missing from the electoral list.

In the petition, he also said that it was not proper to deny the rights to cast their votes to thousands of people of Coimbatore.

Tamil Nadu BJP President, K. Annamalai, who was also the party candidate from the Coimbatore Lok Sabha seat, had demanded a repoll in several booths of Coimbatore after names of many persons were missing from the electoral rolls.

Speaking to mediapersons after the elections, Annamalai has said that around one lakh votes were missing from the voter list of Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency.

The State BJP President had also said that people who traditionally exercise their franchisee for the BJP were denied their right.