Telangana assembly elections: Citizens upload angry posts on social media groups over missing names

HYDERABAD: Resentment among voters over ‘missing’ names continued on Saturday with hundreds of aggrieved residents flooding social media platforms with angry posts and comments. Lashing out at the administration for failing to address this glaring loophole, the infuriated lot of voters said that the officials had no right to complain about the poor turnout in Hyderabad when so many of them couldn’t even exercise their right.

“How can you blame the people for the low polling percentage when thousands of those who wanted to vote, didn’t get a chance because their names were not on the list,” rued T Sunil Kumar, a resident of the Charminar constituency, on an instant messaging group created specially for those who could not vote on Friday.
While most of the complaints on the group were posted by voters from the seven constituencies in the Old City, scores of others from the rest of the city took to the platform to vent their anger.
“I was shocked when I went to the booth at 9am only to be told that my name was not on the list. While I was waiting from the officials to check, I saw at least 25 other people going through the same problem,” said Gurram Prabhakar a resident of Karmanghat (L B Nagar constituency).
Though Aashish Gujarati was among the lucky ones who manged to cast his vote, his wife wasn’t. “It is surprising because she voted the last time around,” said the Basheerbagh resident seeking a re-election from the booths that reported large number of missing voters, through his post. His area falls under the Khairatabad constituency.
On Twitter too, the outcry was massive. Rajaram Savur posted: “A conspiracy? Chief Electoral Officer Kumar and his team should be sacked immediately. CBI must investigate.” In fact, given the massive outcry, some even wondered if the authorities should have conducted the polls after weeding out these discrepancies. “If EC was not ready for Telangana Elections, why did they go for it? Now they are saying sorry to people who missed their names in voters list. In Hyderabad itself more than 10 lacs people were not able to vote because of EC mistake,” tweeted Nikhil Reddy Gudur.