CEC struggles to find his name in voters' list

Prarthna Gahilote , CNN-IBN
Posted on May 07, 2009 at 14:50 | Updated May 07, 2009 at 17:27

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New Delhi: As Delhi and the NCR voted on Thursday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla’s name was initially missing from the voters' list. It was later found that his name had appeared on another list as he had shifted home after his promotion as CEC.

Chawla along with his wife and daughter exercised their franchise at booth number 86 in Nirman Bhawan that houses government offices and has been turned into a VIP polling station for the elections in the New Delhi constituency.

CNN-IBN’s Prarthna Gahilote spoke to the CEC minutes after he cast his vote. Excerpts from the interview:

CNN-IBN: Considering four phases are over, do you think on the hindsight it was a right decision to have most of the Naxal states in the first phase of polling?

Navin Chawla: Absolutely right. There is not an ounce of doubt in my mind. We could not have done it any other way.

Please remember that it was important that we gave security forces to the Naxal areas for the maximum amount of time. Since we did it in the first phase so we could station our security forces for 21 days. If we had done it in any other phase, the security forces could not have been there for more than two days.

CNN-IBN: We believe your name was not there in the voters’ list.

Navin Chawla: I was very amused. I think the BLO some months ago had shown my address not as 9, Motilal Nehru Marg but as 4, Motilal Nehru Marg. So when they realised the mistake they must have corrected it. So my name was deleted at 4 and substituted at 9. I have just finished voting, so there is no confusion.

CNN-IBN: LK Advani has had some suggestions. One, that the entire country should go to the polls together and that the elections should take place in February. Any thought on that?

Navin Chawla: These and many other suggestions have been made in the last few weeks and months. As soon as elections will be over, each one of these suggestions should be seriously debated.

More on: General Elections 2009, Navin Chawla, Election Commission, voters' list