Despite having election identity cards, several voters at the prestigious Gole Market constituency, from where Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is seeking re-election, had to return without casting votes after they were told that their names did not figure in the electoral list.

The aggrieved voters, many of them hailing from Bihar, said they had been living in the area for several decades.

Eighty-five year old Indira Pasricha, a former vice-president of the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party unit, who was among the disappointed lot, said, "This is the first time that I am returning without casting my vote."

Pasricha, who had come to St Columbus School to cast her vote, said she had been living at the Scindia House since 1956.

Finding that no official or polling agent was coming forth with help, the voters approached the media to register their protest.

"Through media we want to tell the authorities that because of their callousness we are being deprived of our fundamental right," J P Jakhwala and his wife Lakshmi Devi said.

However, there were also voters who could not cast their ballots because they did not have election identity card or any other proof recognised by the Election Commission.

Sat Narayan was one among them. The polling officials did not allow him to cast his vote as he could produce only a challan, that too in his deceased father's name, to prove his claim.