Chennai: Poll official in spot for allowing actor to vote sans name in rolls

Chennai: The poll official who had helped actor Sivakarthikeyan to vote, despite his name not figuring in the electoral roll, has landed in trouble. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo has ordered action against the polling official in Chennai for allowing the actor to vote on April 18, when his name was not on the electoral roll.

“Sivakarthikeyan’s name was not on the voter’s list. He has voted despite that. This is a mistake on the part of the polling booth officials present there. I have ordered for action against them,” Mr Sahoo told reporters at the Secretariat here on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Sivakarthikeyan and his wife Aarthi had gone to vote at the Good Shepherd School polling booth in Valasaravakkam. While his wife’s name was on the list, Sivakarthikeyan’s name could not be found in the rolls. Sivakarthikeyan had returned to the booth an hour later and was allowed to cast his vote. When asked, he told the media persons he had received ‘special permission’ to cast his vote.

The actor tweeted with a photo of his inked finger on the same day, saying: “Voting is your right and fight for your right.” It was obvious that the actor was passionate about exercising his franchise and not let his vote go waste. His keenness to vote was evident even on the day before the election, when he tweeted in Tamil: “Let’s all vote without fail. This is not just our duty but also our right”.

Needless to say, with that kind of expectation about his first task in the morning, the actor would have felt shattered at his name going missing in the electoral rolls.

Actor Srikanth, who is known for his role in Nanban, also found his name missing from the voters’ roll, but was allowed to vote by the officers in Saligramam since he had a voter’s ID. Later, the actor realised he was supposed to vote in a different booth, which was in Valluvar Kottam.

It is not yet clear whether CEO Sahoo would also punish the officials who allowed Srikanth to vote in the wrong booth, that too in a different parliamentary constituency.

Robo Shankar and Ramesh Kanna are other Tamil celebrities whose names were missing from the voters’ list. They were not allowed to vote. Releasing a video on polling day, Ramesh Kanna claimed that he had gone to his booth where he had voted in previous years, an hour ahead of the scheduled polling time of 7 am. Later, to his shock he was told that he could not vote because his name did not figure in the voters’ roll.

“Now I have lost my chance to vote. Whose mistake is this? Will they allow me to exercise my right in Nagercoil now? (where he was heading on that day)” he asked in the video.