A martyr’s mother, lawyer & kin, chai-parantha sellers’ family — all missing in Chandigarh’s electoral revision

A mother lost her only son following an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir. Another family has spent three decades serving chai and paranthas to generations of Chandigarh students and voted for decades here.

Yet, after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), all of these and more have found their names absent in the electoral roles of a city they have called home for decades.

Chandigarh’s final electoral roll has 4,60,209 electors, against 6,59,805 in the 2024 General Election roll — a net reduction of 1,99,596 electors, or 30.25 per cent. Notices have been sent to people with a call for personal hearing.

Veena Sharma, 86, lost her only son, Captain Rohit Kaushal, who was killed while fighting militants in an encounter in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on November 11, 1995. Captain Kaushal was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for gallantry.

The 86-year-old was flagged for deletion during the SIR after a discrepancy was found in her surname in older electoral records. A notice was served by the jurisdictional Booth Level Officer (BLO), asking her to appear for a personal hearing.

Sharma has been staying in Vrindavan for the past several months following the death of her husband and was not in Chandigarh when the notice was issued. Her son-in-law, Vinod Vashisht, then stepped in.

“In the 2002 electoral rolls, she had Sharma as her surname. At that time, they were staying in Sector 22 and after having moved to Sector 43, her vote showed the surname Kaushal. But the change had not been made in her older electoral record. And she was served a notice with calls that she has to personally attend the hearing,” Vashisht told The Indian Express.

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What troubled the family was that Sharma was being asked to travel to Chandigarh despite being 86 and having several government documents establishing her identity.

“She is 86 years old and has been a voter in Chandigarh for more than 40 years. She is currently staying in Vrindavan and could not simply be asked to travel to Chandigarh again and again just to establish something that is already supported by her documents,” Vashisht, who is also patron of the Shaheed Capt Rohit Kaushal Charitable Trust, said.

He said Sharma’s Aadhaar, PAN, pensioner card and passport all carry her present surname and are linked to her registered mobile number.

“I had to repeatedly approach the election authorities and explain that this was an elderly woman and the issue was only a surname mismatch. She was being asked to appear in person in Chandigarh, but why should an 86-year-old woman have to undertake such a journey when her Aadhaar, PAN, pensioner card and passport were already there,” he said.

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Vashisht eventually appeared before the BLO and local election officials are now examining the case. But the episode, he said, raises a larger question about elderly voters who may not have family members to pursue such cases.

“She had already given her only son to the nation. It was painful to see that today she was being made to struggle to establish her right to vote. The process makes us wonder about elderly voters who may not have someone to take up their case,” he said.

30 years of serving chai, paranthas, now an entire family missing from the rolls

For more than three decades, the chai-parantha stall in Sector 35-D has been part of Chandigarh’s student life. Generations of students, PG residents and college-goers have spent time there over steaming cups of tea and plates of parathas.

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But for the family that has run the stall since 1997, that three-decade connection with Chandigarh has not translated into their names remaining on the electoral rolls.

Manoj, 35, who lives with his family in Sector 42-B, Attawa, said his wife, brothers Anil and Krishna, and mother have all been left out of the rolls. His father, too, had been a Chandigarh voter.

“We came here for work and the BLO told us that our house was locked and they could not find us. They have struck off the names of our entire family — my wife, my brothers Anil and Krishna and my mother. My father also voted here only. This stall was started by him in 1997,” Manoj said.

For him, the deletion is difficult to understand because voting in Chandigarh has been part of the family’s life for decades.

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“I am born here… my brothers are born here.. we have been voting since we were 18. My father also voted here,” he said.

Manoj, who currently lives on rent, questioned why being a tenant should become a reason for exclusion from the electoral rolls.

“Just because we stay on rent does not mean we should be excluded from the rolls. We have been living and working here for years. I have asked the BLO to come and verify us at our home, but he does not come,” he said.

He said he also has documents to establish his address.

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“My government license that is given to me for this stall, my Aadhaar Card and all my documents have my address. Still, our name has been struck off. Why were all the names removed? They should come and verify us,” he said.

‘How can they ask us for the 2002 roll? I was just six’

For Karanbir Singh — a lawyer — the demand to establish an electoral link to a 2002 roll when he was just six, has turned into a family ordeal. Karanbir, 30, his wife Rupal Trivedi, sister Harkriti Singh, domestic help Neema Rawat and her son Pankaj Rawat were all asked to undergo verification.

He said all five members had submitted the required documents before the BLO and filed their SIR forms within the stipulated time. He said he submitted his own form on June 24.

Yet, he later received a notice stating that his vote had been cancelled and was called for a hearing on August 4, where he had to submit documents again to get his name restored.

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What particularly puzzled him was the demand to establish the family’s electoral link with the 2002 roll.

“I was six. My sister wasn’t even born. How can they ask us for the 2002 roll,” he asked.

The family was later called to Sector 17 for cross-verification of their documents. For Karanbir, the process meant taking time off work, travelling to the designated centre and waiting in long queues — despite having already submitted the required paperwork.

“There was hardly any clear information about where to go or what exactly had to be done. The place was severely understaffed and people were standing in queues for hours,” he said.

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Describing the scene at Sector 17, Karanbir said, “It honestly looked like a complete fish market”.