NEW DELHI: Nearly one in three registered voters in Delhi has been struck off the draft electoral roll published by Election Commission on Monday after the completion of the special intensive revision enumeration exercise.According to the draft roll, Delhi now has 97.5 lakh electors, against 1.4 crore at the start of the exercise in June. As many as 47.5 lakh electors, or 32.8% of the electorate, have been struck off as their enumeration forms could not be collected during the house-to-house verification.The exclusion, however, is not permanent. Those whose names do not figure in the draft roll can file claims for inclusion till Sept 30. Their applications will subsequently be scrutinised and verified before the final electoral roll is published on Nov 4.Election officials said registered voters were given adequate time and at least three visits were made to their registered addresses to distribute and collect enumeration forms. Forms could not be collected from electors who were found absent, had shifted, were deceased, or were enrolled at multiple places. The poll panel has categorised such electors under ASDDO – absent, shifted, dead, duplicate and others – category.AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal expressed a lack of trust in the process. “Govt of India is unnecessarily worried about the population. Through SIR, Election Commission will reduce our country’s population from 140 crore to 50 crore,” Kejriwal posted on X.Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra, however, said every “genuine and eligible voter” who submitted the form online or through the BLO was included. “Kejriwal’s problem is that many of his supporters who were registered as voters at two or three places have been removed. If Kejriwal believes any genuine and eligible voter has been left out despite submitting the form, he should present such cases before Election Commission,” Malhotra said.According to figures released by Delhi chief electoral officer, 97.53 lakh enumeration forms – 67.2% of the total electorate – were collected and digitised during the enumeration phase from June 30 to Aug 17.Of the 47.56 lakh electors whose forms were not collected, 43.32 lakh were categorised as permanently shifted, 2.82 lakh as deceased, and 1.41 lakh as enrolled at multiple places/duplicate entries.TOI had reported on July 26 that around 20% of Delhi’s registered voters had not been found at their addresses during the door-to-door verification exercise. On Aug 18, TOI reported that around one in three voters was likely to be left out of the draft roll.Of the 97.53 lakh voters in the draft roll, 49.88 lakh are men, 47.64 lakh are women and 447 are third-gender electors. The roll includes 1.03 lakh voters aged 18-19, while 40,871 electors are aged 85 years or above. As many as 189 voters are aged 100 years or more.The claims and objections process will also allow voters to seek correction of particulars and enable citizens and political parties to raise objections against wrongful inclusion of names.Form 6 can be used for enrolment of a new elector, Form 6A for an overseas Indian, Form 7 for objecting to a proposed inclusion or seeking deletion of an existing entry, and Form 8 for shifting of residence, correction of particulars, replacement of EPIC without correction and marking of a PwD elector.Applications can be submitted physically to electoral registration officers, assistant electoral registration officers and BLOs, besides designated locations. Electors can also submit applications online through ECI voter portal and ECINET mobile app. There are 70 EROs and 297 AEROs in Delhi to scrutinise claims and objections.However, inclusion of names in the draft SIR roll does not mean that their names will appear in the final roll. With the publication of the draft roll, the notice and verification phase, which will continue till Oct 29, has also started. During this period, EROs will scrutinise the eligibility of electors whose details could not be linked with the previous SIR electoral roll, or where there are discrepancies in the information submitted.Where required, EROs will issue notices and provide the elector concerned an opportunity to be heard. Officials will then pass a speaking order before taking any decision. The commission has also provided an appellate mechanism. A person aggrieved by an ERO’s decision can appeal to the district magistrate within 15 days of the ERO’s order. If still dissatisfied, a second appeal can be filed before the chief electoral officer within 30 days of the DM’s order.Delhi has 70 assembly constituencies and seven parliamentary constituencies. Matiala (AC-34) has the largest electorate in the draft roll, with 3,33,057 voters, while Delhi Cantt (AC-38) has the smallest, with 41,654 voters.Matiala also has the highest number of polling stations – 430 – while Delhi Cantt has the lowest, with 90 polling stations.The number of polling stations in Delhi has increased by 1,914 as the poll panel has also rationalised polling stations. The permissible number of electors per polling station has been reduced from 1,500 to 1,200 to make voting more convenient. Following rationalisation, the number of polling stations has increased from 13,033 to 14,947. The number of polling station locations has also increased from 2,696 to 2,856.
