New Delhi: A fortnight after nearly 47.6 lakh voters’ names were deleted from Delhi’s draft electoral roll, only a fraction of them have submitted Form 6 for re-inclusion in the electoral roll. The draft roll was published on Aug 31 and the window for filing claims and objections will close on Sept 30.The draft roll has 97.5 lakh electors, while Delhi had 1.45 crore registered voters in June when Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll began in the city. Data shows that till Sept 15, 62,583 Form 6 applications, including those by first-timers who have sought inclusion, were submitted, while the tally stood at 68,043 on Sept 16.The low number of claims has surprised election officials. “Most of the 47.6 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the draft roll had shifted from their registered addresses because of various reasons as the city has a large number of tenants and also migrant workers. They failed to submit enumeration forms and their names got deleted,” said an official. “We expected that over 10% of the voters who shifted within the city may submit applications for inclusion, but the response is tepid. We are creating awareness among people about the claims and objection phase,” he added.The 47.6 lakh excluded electors have been categorised under Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others after the house-to-house verification exercise. A large majority of those excluded — around 43.3 lakh — were categorised as absent or shifted, while around 2.8 lakh were marked dead and 1.4 lakh as duplicate entries.According to the figures released by the Delhi election office for the claims and objections phase, 91,826 applications have been received under the four categories between Aug 31 and Sept 16. Besides Form 6 applications, they include 22,715 Form 8 applications for correction or modification of existing electoral entries such as name spelling errors, 922 Form 7 applications for request/objection for deletion of a name for reasons such as the person is dead, has shifted, is registered more than once or is otherwise ineligible, and 146 Form 6A applications from overseas electors.After the claims and objections phase gets over, officials will examine the forms and complete the disposal process by Oct 29. The final SIR electoral roll for Delhi will be published on Nov 4.Special camps for homelessThe election office Thursday announced that special camps would be held across the city on Sept 23 and 24 to enrol homeless people, third-gender persons, sex workers and others in the electoral rolls. The camps for homeless people will be organised from 5pm to 9pm at all Dusib night shelters and in other identified pockets. Camps for third-gender persons and sex workers will be held in all districts in coordination with NGOs working for their welfare.Booth-level officers (BLO) will be deployed at the locations and given application forms and electoral rolls of the polling parts concerned. While online submission through the BLO app will be encouraged, the applicants must also submit physical forms. All 13 districts have been asked to maximise enrolment while ensuring no ineligible person is added to the rolls.
