A visibly upset Vidya posted a video message on Instagram, seeking help after being denied the chance to vote.She mentioned that although she hadn’t received her voter ID card, she went to cast her vote carrying her Aadhaar card and was accompanied by her aged parents.
She said, “This is really upsetting. I have spent the last three hours with my mom and dad at a voting booth trying to vote, but my name is not there. Where I stay is not listed, nobody knows my number, and I haven’t been able to vote. My parents are 70-plus years old. I took them, and we’ve all been standing there. The staff was kind enough to give my parents chairs to sit in, but I’m so upset.
I’ve tried to fill out numerous forms, but the voter ID hasn’t come to my house. I brought my Aadhaar card, thinking I might still be able to vote with it, but it didn’t work. I haven’t been able to vote, and I don’t know what to do. The Bandra constituency doesn’t have my name listed. I was born and brought up here, lived in that house for half my life, and even though I’ve moved to my own place, I’ve always voted from Bandra.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kiara Advani & other Bollywood celebs exercise their voting rights in Mumbai
I have no idea what happened. My father’s name was there, my mother’s name was there, but not mine. I’m beyond upset. This isn’t acceptable. I’ve heard there’s been a lot of confusion this year, but it’s my right and duty to vote, and I’m really upset I haven’t been able to.
This process started at 10 a.m., and now I’ve come back home without voting.”
Similarly, Amit Trivedi was also denied the right to vote. In his video, he mentioned feeling helpless after authorities at his voting booth claimed that his voting serial number didn’t exist. Despite multiple checks, he was still unable to vote.
He said, “Hi guys, I went to vote today, and as soon as I reached the booth, I showed them this receipt, given to me by the voting officials. I showed him my voter ID and my Aadhaar card; everything was in place. But he said, “1080 is not there, your number is not there. Get it fixed from where you got it from.”
So, I went outside where there was a huge queue. After waiting for half an hour and reaching the front of the line, the guy checked some book, some register, and some paper. After checking for half an hour, he even checked on his phone, he checked all my details, did everything, and after that, he said, “Sorry, it’s not there, sir, you can’t vote.”
So, I asked, “You mean I won’t be able to vote?” He said, “No sir, you won’t be able to vote.” A lot of people were disappointed; people have been disappointed for the last 203 days. A lot of people are going through this, I don’t know. Okay, fine, so I couldn’t vote.”
He captioned his video, “Voting is our constitutional right. Today I was denied that right and I feel helpless. Did this happen to anyone else? How.. and why??”
Several Bollywood celebrities exercised their franchise on Monday in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls that covered Mumbai and flaunted their inked fingers as a proud moment of exercising their choice in the world’s largest democratic exercise.
The celebrity voters at the polling booths included iconic personalities such as Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman khan, Ranbir Kapoor, actress Madhuri Dixit, Sara Ali Khan, Ananya Panday, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan among others.
