It’s quite symptomatic of what has gone wrong with the voter registrations in Pune, says Daigo Almeida, president of Catholic Association of Pune, and gives the example of Denzel Pinto of Ghorpuri who has become ‘Devil’ Pinto in the ID card.

Similarly, 24-year-old Aaditi Nandakishore’s enthusiasm to cast her vote faded when she saw her name registered online as a 50-year-old male. “While I am yet to get a voters’ I-card, I saw my name on the website,” she says.

She could not vote during the Lok Sabha elections as her name was missing from the voters’ list. “Now, I guess I will get the correct card only for the next elections,” she adds.

Imagine Brig (retd) Dr C V Koshy was shocked when his wife’s name Shanta was changed to Sunita and eldest daughter-in-law Junie’s misspelt name figured at two places in the voter’s list in Pune Cantonment constituency. He wonders whether this is how the administration is claiming high numbers and rising percentage of those under voter I-card cover. Koshy’s own name has been spelt Kaushya.

Then there is Bishop of Pune Rev Thomas Dabre and St Patrick’s Cathedral parish priest Father Malcolm Sequeira who despite filing RTI have failed to get their voter ID cards. Father Malcolm has been a running from pillar to post to get the identity card for five priests and the Bishop of Pune. “Three years ago I had sought a transfer from Goregaon where I was enlisted as a voter. Now in Pune, I have submitted all my details and had to even file an RTI to find what happened to my application. I found out that my application was lost. For the last three days I have been visiting the district collectorate to secure voter identity cards,” he says.

... contd.