New Delhi: The Election Commission has reopened the door for voters struck off the rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), telling the chief electoral officers of seven states that those marked absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD) will get one more chance at inclusion — and will get back the EPIC numbers they held before their names were deleted.
In a three-page communication dated November 6, the commission directed the CEOs of Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Nagaland to display afresh booth-wise lists of every ASDD elector whose enumeration form never came back, along with the probable reason for exclusion, at polling stations, panchayat bhawans, urban local body offices and block development offices. The lists are to be uploaded as readable PDFs on the CEOs' websites.
Partially filled enumeration forms are to be regenerated on the ERO dashboard in ECINET. District election officers and electoral registration officers have been told to reach electors physically or through WhatsApp, email and SMS wherever contact details exist, with booth level officers making house-to-house visits in coordination with the booth level agents of political parties.
Voters who have not moved must submit the enumeration form with a statement explaining why they missed the earlier deadline. Those who have shifted within the state no longer need Form 8: the enumeration form, with the new address and assembly constituency and address proof, goes to the ERO of the new constituency. For homeless electors without documents, a BLO's field verification report will serve as proof of residence. Anyone who has already filed Form 6 need not file again.
The commission said accepted cases will be parked for inclusion in the final roll after verification and will be reassigned their old EPIC numbers — the part of the order that petitioners in the Delhi SIR case called the most consequential safeguard.
"All those on ASDD list who will now fill enumeration form along with the applicable statement will be re-assigned their old EPIC number," transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri said in a statement. "The provision to re-assign the old EPIC numbers is important as it will ensure preservation of voter's historical record of being an existing voter."
The order follows the Supreme Court's October 28 observation, in the petition filed by Bhardwaj and Johri, that making deleted electors fill Form 6 — which carries a declaration of applying for inclusion for the first time — was an error, and that such voters should be allowed to use the enumeration form or Form 8. The Election Commission had on November 3 clarified that filing Form 6 in these circumstances would not amount to a false declaration. The top court has listed the matter for November 19.
In Delhi alone, 47.56 lakh electors were deleted in the first phase and placed on the ASDD list, of whom 31.59 lakh were marked permanently shifted and 11.73 lakh absent or untraceable, the petitioners said. Across the seven states, the ASDD categories account for the bulk of the names struck off the draft rolls, according to figures cited in media reports.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called the communication a belated admission that wrongful deletion and exclusion had taken place under the ASDD category.
Delhi's claims and objections window now runs to November 25, with the final roll due on December 22 and disposal of claims to be completed by December 15. Between August 31 and November 5, the Delhi CEO's office received 2,96,336 Form 6 applications, 28,853 Form 7 requests for deletion of names and 1,10,184 Form 8 applications for correction of entries. Of 33.1 lakh notices issued for no-mapping and logical discrepancies, 32,35,212 electors had been parked for the final roll as of November 4.
(With inputs from PTI and media reports)