SIR: Over 22 lakh voters dropped from three States

More than 22.10 lakh electors were excluded from the draft electoral rolls published on Sunday in three states — Odisha, Manipur and Sikkim — following a month-long house-to-house survey during the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. Odisha topped the list with 20.14 lakh deletions, followed by Manipur (1,58,677) and Sikkim (37,724).

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), following the exercise carried out between May 30 and June 28 this year, the number of voters have come down from 3,33,99,591 in the pre-revision electoral roll to 3,13,87,034 in the draft in Odisha. Of the 20 lakh voters whose names were excluded from the electoral roll, 8.32 lakh died, 10.07 lakh shifted elsewhere or remained absent during the exercise, and 1.58 lakh names were found registered as voters in multiple places. Besides, around 14,000 voters did not return their enumeration forms to the booth-level officers (BLOs) during the enumeration phase.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) RS Gopalan said the draft electoral roll comprises 1,60,19,176 male voters, 1,53,65,083 female voters and 2,775 third-gender electors.

“The voters, whose names were not there in the draft electoral roll, can submit their claim or objection either through the BLO or through the ECINET mobile app or voters.eci.gov.in,” Gopalan said at a press conference.

He said that claims and objections will be heard till August 4 and the final electoral roll will be published on September 6. “If someone’s name does not feature in the draft voter list, the person needs to fill up a form and submit it to poll authorities along with a declaration form and other documents,” the CEO said.

As per the draft electoral rolls in Manipur, which published on Sunday, 1,08,283 voters had either “shifted, were absent as the BLOs did not find these electors, or did not get back their filled enumeration forms before June 28. BLOs found 7,394 electors enrolled at multiple places and 43,000 electors dead. Manipur has 19.34 lakh voters in the draft electoral roll. The final electoral roll in the State will be published on September 6 this year.

More than 37,000 people have been left out of the draft electoral rolls published in Sikkim on Sunday. The office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that following the publication of the draft electoral roll, the claims and objections window will remain open until August 4, allowing eligible voters to apply for inclusion or raise objections.