The announcement of the Mahila Samman Yojana by the ruling AAP doling out Rs 2100 to eligible women citizens has seen a `sudden’ spike in the electoral roll enrolment in the national Capital. The Election Commission (EC) has directed officials to scrutinize and verify each and every application for new voter registration to identify genuine people amid the ongoing war of words between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the manipulation of voters list. The EC said it has received an unprecedented number of 5.1 lakhs form-6 for new enrolment in the last 20 days.The EC mandates strict verification processes including field checks and personal hearings to ensure authenticity. Notably, the gender ratio also increased from 855 per 1000 to 859 to 1000, an increase of 4 percent.
According to a statement from the office of Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), over 5.1 lakh applications for new voter registration were received in the last 20 days, during the revision period from October 29 to November 28, 2024, 1,35,089 new voters were registered, 69,177 names were deleted, and 83,825 corrections were made to the voter list.
The number of voters registered in the national capital has 1,55,24,858 as compared to 1,53,57,529 as on October 29, 2024, marking a net increase of 1.09 percent. Of them, 83.49 lakh of them male, 71.73 lakh female and 1261 transgender. The Delhi electoral roll has witnessed a rise of 8,06,739 voters since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On January 22, 2024, before the Lok Sabha polls, the total number of voters in Delhi was 1,47,18,119.
“Unprecedented rush of form-6 for new voter registration has been noticed since 16th December, 2024; as over 5.1 lakhs form-6 have been received in Delhi since this date. This is after adding 3.08 Lakhs new voters since draft publication date 29.10.2024. This trend of unprecedented increase of form-6 and that too after 20 days of last date of receiving claims and objections as scheduled in SSR-2025 (28.11.2024), is unexpected and needs greater scrutiny,” the Delhi CEO said. The Delhi CEO office said directions have been issued to all electoral registration officers to scrutinize each and every form strictly as per ECI guidelines.
“100% field verification shall be done by EROs and AEROs to identify the genuine eligible persons. EROs are also conducting personal hearing in doubtful cases as per ECI guidelines. Till now, eight FIRs have been filed against 24 people for submission of false/tampered documents for obtaining voter ID. EROs have been directed to take stringent action against the persons, who are submitting false claims and fake documents to get enrolment in the electoral roll,” the CEO’s office said. The poll officials have denied the claims, saying that all due processes are followed for addition and deletion of voters.
Both AAP and the BJP have accused each other of tampering with the voters’ list ahead of the Delhi Assembly Election 2025. AAP has raised concerns about the alleged removal of their supporters’ names from the electoral roll, claiming unauthorised deletions. On the other hand, the BJP has pointed to discrepancies in the voters’ list, attributing them to the presence of illegal immigrants and relocated individuals, which they believe has led to inaccurate additions.
AAP had accused the BJP of filing bulk applications to delete the names of voters perceived to support the Kejriwal-led party.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that voter names were being deleted in the New Delhi Assembly constituency, from where AAP convener and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting. Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva hit back, accusing AAP leaders, including Singh, of threatening election officers.
The Office of Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) published the Special Summary Revision (SSR), 2025 ahead of the assembly elections.
The Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls with respect to the qualifying date of January 1, 2025, started in all 70 Assembly constituencies of NCT of Delhi with the commencement of pre-revision activities on August 20, 2024, the statement said. “During the period of receiving claims & objections i.e. from 29.10.2024 to 28.11.2024, 1,35,089 form-6 (registration of new voters), 69,177 form-7 (objection to any existing entry in the electoral roll), and 83,825 Form-8 (correction of entries in existing electoral roll) were received in Delhi. Claims & Objections continue to pour in ever after 28.11.2024. All claims and objections pending as on 29.10.2024 and received during the period 29.10.2024 to 28.11.2024 were disposed by the EROs as per the scheduled date i.e. by 24.12.2024,” read the EC statement.
Among the constituencies, Vikaspuri recorded the largest electorate with 4,62,184 voters, while Delhi Cantonment has the smallest at 78,893. Tilak Nagar registered the highest gender ratio at 967 females per 1,000 males, whereas Okhla recorded the lowest at 731. As the electoral list, there are 2,O8 302 voters in the age group of 18-19; 2589780 in the age group of 20-29; 4174823 voters in the age group of 30-39; 3644638 in the age group of 40-49; 2462994 in the age of 50-59; 1377909 in the age of 60-69; 789190 in the age of 70-79 and 277221 in the age group of 80 and above. Meanwhile, the gender ratio has improved to 859 females per 1,000 males, and the elector-population ratio has reached 71.45, up by two points, the statement said.
According to the statement, eight FIRs have been lodged against 24 individuals for submitting fake documents with the Delhi CEO, emphasising the importance of transparency and accuracy in voter registration to prevent any misuse.
The revision of electoral rolls is a continuous annual exercise with addition and deletion of voters going on round the year. For conducting elections, the poll panel uses the last available updated rolls till the notification of election.
