Maharashtra's deleted voters names: parties want repoll, CBI probe

Earlier, Chavan indirectly blamed the people for not checking voters' lists well in advance to ensure their names were there.

"... People check on their flight and train ticket status, they could have easily checked the voters' lists," he commented, obviously referring to some prominent people like HDFC's Deepak Parekh, jurist Ram Jethmalani, BSE chief A.K. Chauhan, adman Bharat Dabholkar, actors Amol Palekar and Atul Kulkarni and lakhs of others whose names were missing from the electoral rolls.

Brahma assured the missing names would be included before the Maharashtra assembly elections later this year.

Tiwari said if Brahma had considered the issue highlighted on April 19 - well before the polls - then at least two million voters would have got the opportunity to vote.

State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis, reacting to the EC apology, told a private news channel there were "gross irregularities" in the working of the election officials which led to the fiasco.

"There have been reports that the private BPOs entrusted with the work of electoral rolls revision, are charging money for selective deletions which can benefit a particular political party," he said, adding he has complained about this several times to the poll authorities.