'Dead' men land up to vote

INDORE/UJJAIN: They had been voting diligently for a few decades only to be declared ‘dead’ this time around by those entrusted with the task of making voters’ list in these two cities. No wonder, polling officers were shocked when confronted with the ‘dead’ men standing in front of them on Monday with their voter’s I card. The hail and hearty Satyanarayan Agrawal, 72, in Ujjain and Vishnu Bapat, 59, in Indore, ultimately could not exercise their franchise.For Bapat the irony was that his wife, who died about a year ago, was ‘alive’ as per the voters’ list!
“I have been voting at Parasrampuria Dharamshala polling booth for the last 50 years and also have the voter identity card,” Agrawal said adding that no election office employee had visited his house in the recent past then how they assumed that he was no more.
Bapat, who used to cast his vote at Lokmanya high school booth in Manikbagh, said, “I am shocked to see that I was declared dead in the list, while my wife, Yashashree Bapat, who died about a year ago, was ‘alive’. He added that he was told by the election officials that it is a case of manual error.
Similarly, eight members of an Ujjain-based family, headed by Shantibai, were running from one booth to the other at Madhavnagar School of Excellence voting centre but ended disheartened for not being able to vote. She said, “We have been living in the same house in Neelganga area for the last 40 years and have been voting regularly at this centre (no 37 in Ujjain South constituency). This is the first time that our names are missing.”
Ujjain district election officer and collector BM Sharma was not available for his comment.