Pune: Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday extended the deadline for filing claims and objections to Maharashtra’s draft electoral roll under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by 18 days, from Oct 26 to Nov 13.The extension follows a request from Maharashtra chief electoral officer S Chockalingam. ECI has also extended the deadline for disposal of claims and objections from Nov 10 to Nov 25.Opposition parties had urged the state govt to seek an extension, citing drought-related distress and migration that could prevent rural voters from submitting applications and supporting documents within the stipulated period. “The time was too less to fill the form as a new voter or those deleted from the list,” said an opposition leader.An election official had earlier said extensions had already been granted at various stages of the SIR exercise. “Form 6 is simpler to fill in after the SIR exercise. Many people seem to be waiting for the SIR to be over before submitting their applications through the simpler form,” the official said. However, data showed that only about 19 lakh forms had been received until Oct 26, and the opposition had stated that there could be many voters who would not have been able to submit their forms due to lack of documents within the deadline. The draft electoral roll was published on Aug 31, following the SIR exercise with Oct 1, 2026, as the qualifying date. The claims and objections period, initially scheduled to end on Oct 12, was subsequently extended to Oct 26. The door-to-door enumeration exercise had earlier been extended until Aug 17.The revised schedule was notified by the ECI on Oct 29 under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The commission has asked state govt to publish the notification in an extraordinary issue of the state gazette and ensure wide publicity of the revised deadlines.
