On the morning of 15 January, Ashutosh from Mumbai's Kandivali suburb set out to vote in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. But upon reaching the polling station, he was shocked to find his name missing.
"I checked our names in the online list two days ago. We were not worried because we had just voted in the Assembly elections a year ago and also in the general elections. But I still checked because the local party volunteers in the area had been reminding people to check their names beforehand. But at the station, I was told right at the entrance that our names were not in their list," he told The Quint.
Like Ashutosh, scores of Mumbaikars set out to vote early in the morning on Thursday only to face chaos and confusion over voter lists at polling stations, booth officials who could hardly help, and being tossed from one station to another to exercise their right to vote.
Several voters reported that their names were missing from the electoral rolls when they arrived to cast their ballots, despite verifying their names and polling stations on the Election Commission website, leading to officials scrambling to assist people in locating their details.