Meerut: A two-year-old Meerut boy, whose name was included in the voters’ list, turned up at a polling booth here accompanied by his parents, to cast his vote in the civic body elections on Wednesday. For a moment, electoral staff even allowed him to cast the vote after tallying his name with the voters’ list, only to be stopped by an alert polling officer.Yuvaan Batra arrived in the arms of his father, Honey, at the polling booth in LIC Building, Saket, which is part of ward no. 50 of the city. At first polling booth staff were about to allow him to vote, when polling officer Vivek Bishnoi intervened and demanded a photo ID of the child. Yuvaan’s parents only had his birth certificate, which showed his age as two years. Bishnoi refused to allow the child to vote, which led to an argument between the boy’s parents and electoral staff.Honey Batra, a resident of Nangla Battu area, was adamant that his son be allowed to vote. “My son’s name is there in the voters’ list. How can they deny him the right to vote? The names of three persons from our household are missing from the list, while my two-year-old son’s name is present. Who is to be blamed? Aren’t those three persons citizens of this country? They too have valid ID cards but they are not being allowed to vote. If they, despite being eligible voters, are not allowed, then why is my son, whose name is on the list, not being allowed?”Soon, many residents of the area whose names were absent from the list began agitating, demanding that Yuvaan must be allowed to cast his ballot. Police personnel intervened and persuaded the agitated parents to leave the premises.Later, Bishnoi told TOI, “Yuvaan’s name being included in the list seems to be the result of a mistake, but birth certificate does not figure in the list of 16 documents allowed by the Election Commission for voters to show as ID proof. In addition, Yuvaan’s age as shown in the voters’ list is 19 years.”

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