Berhampur: At 71, Shankar Rao has been witness to many elections, from panchayat to state and national. The 71-year-old from Laxmi Nagar in Berhampur has cast his vote in several of them along with his family members. But now he finds his name missing from the draft voter list, published on Sunday following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.“While searching online, I found the names of my wife and daughter in the draft electoral roll. But that of my son and mine could not be found,” said Rao.Rintu Parida (27) of Burukudi panchayat got his name in the voter list in 2022 before the panchayat election. He, too, found his name missing in the draft electoral rolls, even though that of his mother and younger brother had been included.Rao and Parida claimed no one got in touch with them or gave them any form to fill up during the revision period between May 28 and June 28. “We don’t know why our names have been left out from the draft electoral roll,” both of them said.They have now decided to file objections before the concerned booth level officer (BLO) with the hope that their names would be included.Over 2.07 lakh voters in Ganjam district — highest in the state — have been deleted from the draft electoral rolls. While 94,734 of them were found dead, 73,378 had shifted permanently. Similarly, 17,936 names were found in multiple places and 20,497 electors were found absent. The names of 1,079 have been deleted for some reason or the other, a source said.Ganjam district collector Keerthi Vassan V said the affected electors can file claims and objections to get their names back on the list before the final list is published on Sept 6. “All eligible voters will be in the list,” he assured.
