Retired Saswad principal's polling booth moved 17 km away to Rajewadi in Pune graduates' roll

Voters say they have found several serious errors in the electoral roll prepared for the Pune Graduates' Constituency election. One example is Sanjay Mehetre, who retired as principal of Garware College in Pune and has settled in his ancestral village of Saswad. In one place he is described as having retired as headmaster of Garware High School. He has been living in Saswad for the past eight years.

Mehetre and his wife had registered their names for the graduates' constituency. When the initial list came out, his name was at the Saswad centre, with serial number 848. But when the final list arrived at the last moment, his name had been placed at the polling station in Rajewadi village, 16 to 17 km from Saswad.

On noticing this, Mehetre went to the naib tehsildar of the election branch in Saswad. According to him, he was not given time to meet the official for two days. He then spoke to the officials concerned, but received no proper help. After that he approached Tehsildar Vikram Rajput directly. The tehsildar said there would now be no change in the process and washed his hands of the matter. The officials also gave an odd assurance that they would arrange transport to and from the polling station.

Mehetre says this is not one person's problem. He says about 100 to 200 names on Saswad's initial list were sent to distant villages at the last moment. According to him, many names on the list have been shifted in the same way. He says choosing whom to vote for is their right, but they are being denied it, and officials do not answer on the matter.

He says that when one booth had too many voters, a new booth should have been created locally. Pushing names directly to another village instead was wrong. Mehetre said sharply, "We do not need anyone's favour or a facility of transport to and from. Our right to vote is our entitlement. A new booth could easily have been set up in Saswad, but the administration has deliberately been negligent."

He fears that such arbitrariness and the long distance could leave many voters unable to vote, which would also affect the turnout. The question is also being raised: if a retired principal has to go through such difficulties to vote, what will happen to ordinary people.

Purandar Tehsildar Vikram Rajput was called several times about this, but his response could not be obtained.