Steep fall in Salem voter strength

By Our Special Correspondent

SALEM, MARCH 28. If statistics are to be believed, the number of voters in Salem district eligible to vote in the coming elections has come down drastically, compared to the 1999 figures.

The total number of voters in the district stood at 22,45,241 in 1999, but in the revised list, it has fallen to 21,05,744, a difference of 1,39,497 voters. It means that a population, which could form one Assembly constituency, has vanished.

Thanks to the cent per cent verification carried out recently in the Assembly segments of Salem-I, Salem-II and Veerapandi, `bogus voters' of such a magnitude have been eliminated.

In the earlier list, the number of voters, both male and female, seemed to have been highly inflated.

And the revised list looks very trim (with the earlier figures in brackets):

Salem-I: Male voters - 87,286 (1,07,649), Female - 85,943 (1,04,358), Total - 1,73,229 (2,12,007).

Salem-II: Male - 96,506 (1,18,679), Female - 93,635 (1,13,577), Total - 1,90,141 (2,32,256).

Veerapandi: Male - 1,05,054 (1,25,897), Female - 1,01,488 (1,21,836), Total - 2,06,542 (2,47,733).

Though no valid reasons are attributed to the sudden dip in the number of voters, the political parties are baffled. The AIADMK has launched a series of agitations, levelling charges of large- scale omissions.

Whereas, the DMK has adopted a stoic stand that the cent per cent verification was beyond dispute and hence should be accepted.

However, in their heart of hearts, both the parties shudder to think of the consequences, because they are not sure whose votebank it would erode.

Given the victory margin in the Assembly elections, only a few thousands or even few hundreds, the `missing voters' would make a lot of difference, because it would be difficult to judge in whose favour the tide would turn.

Another factor causing concern to the political parties is that videography for issuing photo-identity cards remains incomplete. At the most, about 70 per cent of the voters have been covered, and here too there is a plethora of complaints.

The parties are facing the twin problem of ``missing voters and voters who do not possess identity cards''.

`Massive deletions in Pondy'

Our Pondicherry Staff Reporter reports

Mr. D. Ramachandran, former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader of Pondicherry, today alleged that he was really shocked to see that a number of voters were excluded from the electoral rolls in the Union Territory.

Representations were made to the election authorities about the massive deletion of names of voters who had been exercising their franchise in some of the constituencies.

Applications submitted in relevant forms for inclusion of names were gathering dust in the government office.

If there was any response, it was only to those who were ``eligible to get the favour.'' Others were left out. Mr. Ramachandran said the names of persons who were on the election committees of parties were also deleted from the voter list.

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