Goof-up: Mumbai becomes victim, guilty EC apologises; Twitter reacts

Updated: Friday, April 25, 2014, 18:11 [IST]

Mumbai, April 25: It seems that Mumbai and its people have become victim of a goof-up made by the Election Commission of India (EC). The Dream City faced tremendous criticism on Thursday, April 24 when it failed to create a good number of record while casting vote.

Initially it was reported that Mumbaikars did not turn up to the polling booths, but later it was revealed that at least 2 lakh voters were refused to cast their votes as their names were missing on voter lists. With reports of missing names, people showed their rage against the Election Commission which on Friday apologised to the people of the city for the goof-up.

"We will look into the matter and we apologise for the inconvenience caused to voters," Election Commissioner HS Brahma said. The official also clarified that they cannot conduct re-polling in Mumbai for this Lok Sabha election. However, the error would be corrected before the Maharashtra assembly election which is due at the end of this year.

The error would be corrected before the Maharashtra assembly election

According to the commission, the names were reportedly left out in "a clean-up" drove to remove voters who have been missing in action for long, have moved out or died.

Bharma, who is one of the three election commissioners, admitted that supervision and verification had been faulty. He also said that voters were also partly responsible as they could have pointed out that their names were missing on March 9, when the final voters' lists were verified.

At least two lakh people including celebrities such as senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani, Marathi actor Atul Agnihotri, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh could not vote as their names were missing on the voter lists.

Mumbai recorded a turnout of 53% on Thursday, a sharp rise from its previous election but far less than many other parts of the country. Citing the inaction of the EC, people turned up to the micro-blogging site Twitter and expressed their rage. #ECActNow has been trending on Twitter since Friday morning.