Kasaragod: On a day, the Election Commission of India released the revised electoral rolls for Kerala's Assembly election, Rajagopala Kaipangala, a farmer in a remote border panchayat in Kasaragod's Belloor, took out a 30 km walk to the District Collectorate to nudge people to check and ensure their names are on the final list.

Kaipangala started his solo walk from the Belloor panchayat office, 6 km from Karnataka, at 10 am and reached the Kasaragod Collectorate at 7.40 pm, walking for nearly 10 hours, mostly under a sun pressing down at 33 degrees Celsius.

Kaipangala, a farmer, trader and social activist, walked briskly with a placard that read 'A walk for the right to vote' in Kannada, Malayalam and English. "I am walking to create awareness," he said, keeping a steady pace.

But the trigger for the walk was personal. Ahead of December's local body election, the State Election Commission deleted his 82-year-old mother Parvathy Bhat's name from Ward 1 (Indumoole) and added it to Ward 14 (Kinningar) in Belloor panchayat.

The family submitted several representations seeking correction, but the error remained. "She did not vote because it would have been illegal to vote from a ward where we neither live nor own an inch of land," Kaipangala said.

The family now finds itself in a catch-22 situation, and so, in a way, do election officials.

After her name was wrongly shifted to Ward 14, the only available remedies were Form 8 or Form 8A. Form 8 is used for shifting address, correcting entries in the electoral roll, or replacing the Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC). Form 8A is meant for the transposition of an entry within the same constituency when a voter shifts residence.

"In both forms, we have to give a declaration implying that she was staying in Ward 14 and has now shifted to Ward 1, where we have been living for generations," he said. The forms require a declaration that the information furnished is true, and warn that filing false information is punishable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. "We cannot submit such a form because we do not own an inch of land in Kinningar," he said.

Onmanorama visited his house at Nettanige, about 5 km from the Karnataka border, to meet Parvathy. "Did you meet my son? He is walking, isn't he?" she said. "I told him not to do that for my single vote. He did not listen." Yet she remains upset that her name was deleted and not restored. "Why did they delete my name?" she said. "We have done no harm to anybody. I came here from Cauvery after I got married at the age of 18. Since then, I have been voting here," she said and said officials should correct it.

Election officials said the booth-level officer had received an application from another Parvathy who had moved to Kinningar, but the officer mistakenly changed the 82-year-old woman's address instead.

Her name has, however, been included in the voters' list during the recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls for the Assembly election. She is now listed in the Kinningar booth for the Assembly polls. But her name continues to be missing from the voters' list for local body elections, where her booth falls in Indumoole. "I checked the new list. My mother's name is there for the Assembly election. We are a joint family — now all our names appear in the Assembly rolls," Kaipangala said.

During his 30-km walk to the Kasaragod Collectorate, however, he did not foreground his mother's case. Instead, he spoke about the importance of verifying one's name in the voters' list.

When autorickshaw driver Pavithrakumar stopped, curious about the man with a placard, Kaipangala explained the SIR process and the release of the new list. "Verify if your name is there. It is online on the Kerala Electoral Officer's site. You can ask the BLO or go to the panchayat," he said.

He wanted people to check before polling day arrived.

Along the way, he spoke to lottery sellers, restaurant workers, and vegetable and fish vendors, turning a personal grievance into a public campaign.