During the Municipal Council elections in Adampur on Tuesday, several female voters alleged discrepancies in the voter lists, claiming that their votes had been shifted to different wards following the recent delimitation exercise.
Many voters complained of being hassled at polling booths after discovering that the names of some of their family members had allegedly been moved to other wards, while others remained listed in their original polling stations. The issue reportedly forced several residents, particularly senior citizens and women, to move from one polling booth to another in the scorching heat to locate their names and cast their votes.
Jasvir Kaur, a resident of Ward No 2, highlighting her grievances, said, “She had to visit nearly three polling booths before finally being able to vote. When I reached the polling booth in my area, my name was not there in the list. Officials asked me to check my name at a booth in Ward No 4. In the sweltering heat, I had to visit nearly three booths before I could finally cast my vote.”
Another voter Baljit Kaur said, “There are five members in my family. While two of us were able to cast our votes in this ward, the votes of the other three members were shifted to another ward. We had to visit different booths to locate their names, which caused inconvenience,” she said.
Meanwhile, officials attributed the confusion to the delimitation of Municipal Council wards in Adampur carried out on December 31 last year. Following the exercise, changes were made in the reservation of seats for general, Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes categories in the Municipal Council.
Officials said the reshuffling of ward boundaries led to changes in the wards of several voters, resulting in confusion during polling.
Responding to the complaints, Lal Vishwas Bains, SDO-cum-Returning Officer, Adampur, said the changes in ward boundaries may have led to the problem.
“The issue arose due to the delimitation of Municipal Council wards in Adampur, which changed the jurisdiction of certain voters. During delimitation, an area earlier falling under one ward may have shifted to another, while voter details remained unchanged initially. Draft voter lists were released and objections or corrections were invited. We have made the necessary changes wherever objections were received,” he said.
