Over 10,000 Muslim voters 'missing' from electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu's Harbour Assembly

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More than 10,000 Muslim voters have been removed from the electoral rolls in Harbour Assembly segment of Chennai Central parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu, a Hindu report stated citing local MLA PK Sekar Babu.

The move was called “unintentional” by the Chennai District Election Officer G Prakash, who assured to look into complaints of deletion of voters.

According to the MLA, he received petitions alleging that the names of several Muslims in his constituency were missing. After finding the complaints valid, he appealed to the District Election Officer to include the deleted names on the rolls again.

The voters have submitted applications for inclusions of their names in the list, said Babu. It is expected to be included in the supplementary roll, he added. The supplementary rolls will be released in a few days.

Asked about the missing names of voters, Prakash said any exclusions had neither been intentional nor done with any ulterior motive. It was possibly a result of voters having moved houses without updating the voter list, he told the publication.

Across the country, more than 3 crore Muslim voters and 4 crore Dalit voters are missing from electoral rolls, the report suggested, citing data compiled by the Centre for Research and Debates in Development Policy (CRDDP).

In view of the data, the organisation and its allies have launched a countrywide campaign to include such ‘missing voters’ on the electoral rolls ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.