Ghaziabad: In an unusual move to improve electoral registration, the district administration will use the upcoming Census 2027 exercise to identify residents aged 18 and above whose names are missing from electoral rolls and connect them with booth-level officers (BLOs) for enrolment.In Ghaziabad, 5.7 lakh names (20.2%) were shaved from the electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. A total of 3.16 lakh names were deleted from the Sahibabad constituency, the highest constituency-level deletions in the state.The Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls is currently underway to provide eligible citizens whose names were inadvertently or administratively omitted or deleted during the intensive enumeration phase an opportunity to re-enrol. Special enrolment drives were held in the district on four days — Oct 17, 18, 24 and 25. The integrated draft electoral roll will be published on Nov 17, after which voters can file claims and objections, including applications for inclusion of names, until Dec 16. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on Jan 1, 2027.A decision to link the Census exercise with identifying eligible voters for inclusion in the electoral rolls was taken at a meeting chaired by district magistrate Ravindra Kumar Mandar, who is also the district election officer, on Monday to review preparations for Census 2027 and the SSR exercise. Mandar directed officials to work in close coordination to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the electoral rolls.The initiative comes ahead of Census 2027 self-enumeration exercise scheduled from Nov 16-30 and the second phase of door-to-door enumeration from Dec 1 to Jan 4 amid concerns about large-scale deletion of voters in special intensive revision (SIR), which has led to the Opposition accusing the NDA of “vote theft” and seeking the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.The exercise acquires urgency with UP going into assembly elections in another three months.The meeting also reviewed the revised polling station arrangements. As per the list approved by ECI, the district, including the part of Dhaulana assembly constituency falling within it, will have 865 polling centres and 3,073 polling stations.
