Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Mar 28: Names of voters missing from the electoral roll is not a new phenomenon in Karnataka. In a matter of fact, Congress in 2009 had protested over 'deleting' voters 'especially those belonging to the Muslim community' in Hubballi.

Now, a New Delhi-based NGO, The Centre for Research and Debates in Development Policy (CRDDP) reports that the names of approximately 18 lac Muslim voters are either missing from the recently updated voters' list or they have not yet been issued with voter id cards.

According to a report by Deccan Herald, CRDDP has identified around 1.28 lac voters missing from the list in 16 Karnataka constituencies. Applying the same math to the 224 constituencies, it is estimated that 15 lac voters are missing.

Quoting CRDDP research associate and COO Khalid Saifullah, Deccan Herald reports that the NGO compared the 2011 census data with the voters' list that was published on February 28, 2018, which helped them estimate the figure. The census data was converted into excel sheet format and an algorithm was used to zero down on Muslim names.

While sampling the Shivajinagar constituency, it was found there are 4.3% of single households among the total 18,453 Muslim households as per 2011 census. However, when compared to the voters' list, more than 8,900 households have only one registered voter in their house. This figure is just 40 percent of the Muslim households, says Saifullah.

CRDDP headed by renowned economist Dr Abusaleh Shariff has started a campaign to highlight indiscrepancies and rectify the issues faced by voters, before the Assembly polls. A website missingmuslimvoters.com and an Android app Muslim Voters has been developed to track missing voters and help them enroll.

Many people are under the notion that one cannot register to vote once the election is announced. This is a misconception. People can enroll till the last date of nomination, that is April 24 for the upcoming elections, says Saifullah.

People who download the app can register as volunteers and can find names of missing voters in their neighbourhood. They can help create awareness and help the missing voters enroll. Since the app’s launch on March 13, more than 8,000 people have downloaded it, he says.

Asif Pasha, a volunteer from Shivajinagar has found 2000 inaccurate entries in his constituency. He claims to have collected 700 applications from people with election IDs who are unable to find their names on the list. We are helping them and we hope they will appear on the supplementary list that EC would publish before the elections. We have also helped 500 people enroll, says Pasha who works as a civil defence warden.

Saifullah has also approached Minister Roshan Baig, Congress MLA Rizwan Ashraf who have admitted that the issue is concerning and needs to be rectified.

Many complaints were registered with regard to missing names during BBMP elections of 2010 and 2015 and the General Elections of 2014.

Manick Tagore, AICC secretary-in-charge of Karnataka (Belagavi division) says that Congress is keeping a close watch on BJP which is 'manipulative'. He also adds that a similar trend of deleting names was noticed in Gujarat Assembly election. Most of the names were of Muslims or Dalits, who are the Congress supporters. He says that Congress has reliable information that BJP was behind the name deletion.