Namaste to all the citizens of India!

Look around and you will find at least one person with this problem in your vicinity, it could be even you; which is why it is high time that we address this issue with unity and help everybody exercise their LEGAL RIGHT TO FRANCHISE!

It is Election Fever 2019 in India and there are awareness campaigns everywhere wooing citizens to go cast their vote! Nevertheless, despite all these drum beats and trumpets there are people who still aren't voting even though they have their voter IDs. That is still upto them, they don't get to complain later. But on the other hand we have people who desperately want to vote and by all means have every right to! But you know what? They have been deprived of their legal rights by either NOT ISSUING THE VOTER IDs or NOT INCLUDING THEIR NAMES IN THE VOTER LIST on time, despite registering for it in time! 

We all have three important benefits to derive by signing this petition:

1) Some of our constituency elections are done. Some are still remaining. We can at least help those people to get their Voter IDs in time and ensure this doesn't repeat again in the future.  

2) We also want to propose an alternate voting day, in this very elections itself, for everybody who couldn't vote due to Voter ID or voter list problems.

3)  This is for future elections- If issuing Voter ID is creating problems, we propose that at least from next time make Aadhaar card sufficient enough criteria for voting and introduce a biometric voting machine to ensure one Indian one vote. This eliminates the whole problem of issuing voter IDs!

There is a story behind every initiative for a change and here is ours. It is highly recommended that you read it, many of you can relate to it as well. 

Two of my friends, twin sisters and first time voters, submitted their online applications for voter IDs back in Jan 2019 for the April elections. They got a link to track the status of their application but it only said it submitted to the Election Commission and there was no other response. They even tried calling the voter's helpline number 1950 incessantly for further information but it was always busy. Months passed by and yet there was no sign of their voter IDs. It was just 2 days before the election day when voter helpline finally picked up the call and asked them to go check with the BBMP office for further information. Quite obediently when they went to check with the BBMP office, they found that the office was closed. BOOM. Now they had no idea what to do and they sincerely turned up the next day in their polling booth, still hanging on to the hope that their names must at least be in the final list and they can get to vote. The helpful volunteers there looked for lists in various apps to figure out if their names were there. They checked on the printed list too but guess what? yeah nice guess, they weren't there. Meanwhile,  there was one more lady who had just walked in and claimed that she had applied just a month ago but hadn't received her voter ID yet. But miraculously her name was there! So now the girls who had registered over 3 months ago to vote, were standing there, with every minuscule of their teeny weeny hope and excitement to cast their first vote, destroyed. They watched as everybody else walked out with glee, flaunting their inked fore fingers. It hurt them, yes it did, the fact that they actually wanted to do vote, had every right to as well, but were deprived of this opportunity solely due to the incompetency and negligence of the BBMP/ward which failed to issue their voter IDs in time. 

This is just one story. I easily know at least two others who are like 29 years old now but have been denied voter IDs again and again and they have never got to experience voting. Some of them have voter IDs but their names aren't in the list. Why is this happening?  To subtly put it, this also inevitably leads to a lot of suspicions regarding the candour of issuing the voter IDs. Whatever might be the reason, this is certainly not the way it should be and whatever is stopping them from issuing it on time should end or come out to lime light. 

Thus, I request everyone of you, my beloved brothers and sisters to join us in this campaign to get all the citizens of India their legal right to vote on the election day and make way for democracy to manifest in its fullest strength.

Thank you