The swadeshi spirit of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) seems disconnected when it comes to voting in the lections. According to Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office, no NRI has casted vote in any of the polls held across the State in last 14 years.
Interestingly, only one such NRI named Indranil Sinha hailing from Deoghar has enrolled in the voter’s list but has never casted his vote. Sources maintained that the provision of NRI voting was introduced in Jharkhand after the 2009 state assembly elections.
Sinha had sent a mail to State CEO few months back stating the reason behind his absence. “He could not cast his vote in the last held lok Sabha polls in April due to personal reasons. It was informed by a mail. Thereafter, we have not received any further query on voting from his side,” said an official.
Several attempts made by The Pioneer to contact Sinha over the issue went in vain. Meanwhile, electoral officers at state as well as at district levels felt ‘lack of interest towards voting’ a major reason for this unrecorded status. NRIs on the other side, blamed the loopholes in the electoral process creating hurdles in casting vote in their native state.
State chief electoral officer (CEO) PK Jajoria said that they have been putting all efforts to encourage NRIs for voting. “We have directed each deputy commissioner to encourage relatives of the NRIs so that the latter can be present for casting vote during the polls. But, if no one turns up we cannot speak anything over the disinterest. It is entirely the choice of a citizen to vote or not to vote,” he added.
Elaborating, the directions of CEO, Deoghar deputy commissioner Ameet Kumar said, “Nothing can be done if NRIs do not come forward for voting. We can only intimate their local guardians to ensure the physical presence of their family member on the polling date in the respective booth.”
Kumar pointed on the information regarding the upcoming assembly polls sent to Indian Embassies by the Election Commission where Jharkhand denizens are residing. TS Nand of Ranchi working at Muscat has never heard of such a communication between election commission of India and embassy.
“I have never received any information about the elections carried out in our state Jharkhand. I will have to check from the embassy. It is also difficult to vote the leaders of Jharkhand as most of them are corrupt. I always observe this corruption during my visit to Ranchi Municipal Corporation or any other government institutions,” said Nand.
Another NRI named Anamika Guha of Ranchi living in California said many of the local denizens fail to vote since India does not have the dual citizenship with countries including United States.