NEW DELHI: The Delhi chapter of the Election Commission has resolved around 20 lakh cases out of 33 lakh flagged where voters were issued notices under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) for logical discrepancies or for not being mapped in the 2002 electoral rolls.
An official release from the Chief Electoral Office (CEO) said that if any person has any grievance, they are “free to contact any of the 14,947 BLOs, 902 AEROs, 70 EROs, 13 DEOs or the Chief Electoral Officer Delhi”. It said, “We had started a proactive campaign to resolve these issues.” The CEO, Delhi, and the Election Commission are committed to ensuring that no eligible voter is left out of the electoral roll, it said.
Special camps are also being held where the booth-level officers (BLOs) assist voters. Such camps will be held to deal with SIR cases on October 18 and October 25. The CEO office assured that all eligible electors who submit Form 6 along with requisite documents will be included in the electoral rolls of Delhi. Since the publication of electoral rolls of 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi on August 31, a total of 2,17,391 people have filed Form 6 so far to become voters.
The ongoing claims and objections phase of SIR will continue till October 30. The claims and objections received will be disposed of by November 30, and the final voters list will be published on December 4.
Over 47 lakh voters out of a total of 1.45 crore were removed from the draft rolls in Delhi in September under the categories of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters. Apart from this, notices were issued to 33 lakh voters on the grounds of logical discrepancies related to name, age or other details.
The CEO’s office came under criticism for issuing notices for logical discrepancies to such a large number of voters. The list included popular figures like Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, senior BJP leader L K Advani, former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar and senior advocate Kapil Sibal among others.
After a large number of prominent citizens flagged on social media about the commission’s inability to map them, the poll body made corrective moves and launched a special drive to help voters fix the gaps in their electoral details.
2 cr voters in Punjab
A total of 2.01 crore voters will be eligible to vote in the Assembly elections in Punjab next year, with the final electoral rolls for all 117 constituencies published after the SIR exercise. The revision included 7.97 lakh new voters, apart from 20 lakh deletions from the draft rolls. The deletions were due to deaths, voters shifting out of the state, voters not found at their addresses, and duplicate entries | P8
