Deletion of 10,000 dead improves Malabar Hill voting

Mumbai: Malabar Hill, one of the plush neighbourhoods of Mumbai city, was known for its lacklustre response to elections.

However, the story was different this time as the Malabar Hill Assembly segment registered the highest polling percentage among all segments in Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency - 56.08 per cent - on Monday.

Everyone was curious to know why and how it happened.  Mumbai collector Shivajirao Jondhale gave a simple explanation for it - the officials sanitised the voters' list by deleting the names of non-existent voters, including almost 10,000 dead people.

Last year, the Mumbai collector's office carried out a survey to find out the number of absent, shifted and dead voters in the constituency.

According to the collector, 25,000 to 30,000 such voters were identified and their names were deleted from the electoral rolls.

"We conducted a survey last year where we identified voters as absent, shifted and dead (ASD). Accordingly, we found 10,000 dead people featured in voting lists. We deleted the names of the deceased voters from the list and we got an improved list of the constituency,” explained the Mumbai collector. This drive helped improve the voting percentage from Malabar Hill, he added.

However, the Colaba Assembly segment, which also has a reputation for low voter turnout, remained indifferent to polls held on Monday. In the Mumbai South constituency, Colaba saw the lowest response from voters with only 45 per cent voter turnout. The collector said that the housing societies in Colaba, as usual, didn't allow election officials to enter their societies. According to the officials, the Colaba constituency has many voters who have shifted from their registered addresses. Most of them are IAS officers.

The collector said, “There is a poor response from high-rises and elite societies. They did not allow our election officers to enter their premises. In the voting lists, there are many IAS officers who have retired and shifted to some other area. But their names remain on the list. This gives the impression that there was poor voter turnout, but the reality is that the electoral rolls need to be updated to get an accurate picture.”

“We are creating awareness of registration of voters but the deletion part is neglected. To get the correct voting percentage, we need to hold a deletion drive for ASD voters in every constituency. If EC allows us to do so, we will do it for  coming polls,” said Mr Jondhale.