Female voters display their voter identity cards in Bhagalpur. Picture by Ashutosh Kumar

Bhagalpur, Oct. 8: A large number of voters under the Bhagalpur, Kahalgaon, Pirpainty, Sultanganj, Nathnagar, Gopalpur and Bihpur Assembly segments would not be able to utilise their electoral photo identity cards during the forthcoming Assembly polls.

The reason is that the department concerned failed to complete its task. The voter cards prepared in the eleventh hour contained mistakes like incorrect age of the cardholder, incorrect names and missing photos of the cardholders, said the district election officer-cum-district magistrate, Bhagalpur, Rahul Singh. Over 4.25 lakh voters out of total 17,25,105 voters would be affected.

Singh said: “Due to some technical faults, the cards cannot be used in these polls but the mistakes will be rectified after the election is over.”

Admitting to the faults, Singh said that over 8 lakh new photos of the voters were available with the administration while 5,11,056 cards have been completed and 4,58,111 cards have already been sent to Assembly segments concerned in the district.

There is a lot of resentment among the voters here in the district for not having the identity cards. Voters here have blamed the faulty system and gross negligence by the authorities assigned for the job.

The Bhagalpur unit of Muslim League, a body of the minority community, has expressed its serious concern over large-scale irregularities in preparing the cards. District president of the organisation Hafiz Mobin alleged that officials concerned in the district remained hostile to provide the photo identity cards to the minority community members.

“Forty-five-year-old Mohammad Naushad Khan, who is a voter at Bhikanpur locality in the city, never got the opportunity to cast his vote in the past. This time his name has been included in the voters’ list but when he was provided with the electoral photo identity card, it had several mistakes. This is one of many such examples that have come to the fore here,” he pointed out.

All the Assembly segments in the district would go to the elections in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections on November 1.