Dehradun: On Thursday, as voters thronged different polling stations to exercise their franchise for the Uttarakhand civic body elections 2025, former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat also reached the booth where he had cast his vote in the Lok Sabha elections. However, he was left red-faced when he didn't find his name in the voters' list.
Reportedly, Rawat was supposed to cast vote in a booth in Ward No. 76 of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation. When party workers reached the polling booth, they found out that Rawat's name was allegedly missing from the voters' list. Despite communication with the state election commission, the issue remained unresolved.
A disappointed Rawat said, "I discussed with the officials of the State Election Commission, but they cited that the website of the commission is running slow and they will try to find out soon. I have been waiting since morning but my name was not found at the polling station where I voted in the Lok Sabha elections. They are now searching for it. Let's see what happens. Election Commission officials have asked me to wait while they check."
Meanwhile, the former CM has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of manipulating voters' list to win the polls.
Speaking to ETV Bharat on the matter, he said, "I should have been cautious from the beginning. The BJP can go to any extent to win the elections. I should have been more alert, knowing that BJP is involved in adding and removing names from the voter list."
Rawat expressed that election commission should be impartial. "I do not want to comment on the state officials. But it is certain that in the BJP government, many people have been complaining that their names have been deleted from the voter list, which is not right for a healthy democracy," lamented the former CM.
As voting continued, Harish Rawat decided to give a message to the people of the state. "Now the voters will have to protect their names in the list themselves. People should not repeat the mistake that I did. They have to monitor whether their name is registered in the voters' list or not," he said.
