Mumbai Congress claims 20 lakh names deleted from voters list

The Congress' Mumbai unit today claimed that names of 20 lakh people residing in the suburbs had been deleted from the voters list.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam today met Suburban Collector Sachin Kurve and asked the latter to act against collectorate officials who he claimed had "deprived" these people of their voting rights.

"Names of 20 lakh people have been deleted from the voters' list in many suburbs of the city. Our first demand to the collector is to release the list of names that had been deleted so that these people know whether they can exercise their right to vote or not," Nirupam said today.

He also demanded that the draft electoral roll, usually prepared after such deletions are carried out, be released without any further delay.

He accused booth level officials making these lists of not being aware of the protocol to be followed while undertaking this exercise.

He said that people who got homes under the state-run Slum Rehabilitation Authority scheme in localities other than their current area of residence were the worst hit due to these deletions.