Odisha Elections 2024: Voters in Puri 'not allowed to vote as names found deleted’ in voter list

At a time when people were in a celebratory mood while exercising their franchise, a group of voters were distressed at Jipur of Algulam panchayat in Puri district as they were deprived of their voting rights this time as their names were not there in the voters' list which was with the booth officials at booth-161.

A polling official of the booth said that since the names of these voters are mentioned as deleted from the list, they cannot vote. 

Expressing his displeasure over such a situation, one of the voters, Sarat Chandra Rath lamented, "The polling officer said that he cannot do anything in our case.  He also inquired with his supervisor about such an anomaly and the latter did not say anything.”

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Sadashiv Mohapatra, who was also not allowed to vote, said, "What can we do in such a scenario? We are helpless. We could not vote. We told everyone about the problem. At this booth, around five people were deprived of voting.”  

Meanwhile, our reporter tried to contact the BDO to learn about the discrepancy, but he did not pick up the call.

In another case, many voters were disappointed after they found their names missing from the voter list at booth-29 of Burla Officers’ Colony in Sambalpur. They were deprived of their voting rights. The incident triggered tension at the booth, as they staged a demonstration. 

A couple lamented that they have been voting at the booth for the last 40 years, but this time they were deprived of their rights.