Delhi SIR deadline extension: BLOs likely to reverify 4.7 million deleted from draft roll

The Election Commission of India extended the deadline for filing claims and objections to November 25

Booth-level officers (BLOs) are likely to undertake a second round of re-verification of nearly 4.7 million names deleted from the draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), officials aware of the matter said on Friday, a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the deadlines for the exercise in Delhi.

The move is aimed at ensuring no eligible voter is left out of the final electoral roll.

The move is aimed at ensuring no eligible voter is left out of the final electoral roll following the deletions from the draft roll published on August 31. This will be the second round of re-verification since the large-scale deletions triggered controversy and concerns over the exclusion of genuine voters.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office this month directed officials to reverify the deleted names. While that exercise has been nearly completed, officials are now considering another round in view of the extended timelines.

“The re-verification of voters was nearly completed, but now, since the dates have been extended, we are planning to carry out a second round of the exercise. This will be done to ensure that no eligible elector misses out,” an official aware of the matter said.

Around 3.1 million of the 3.3 million cases in which voters were issued notices over non-mapping with the 2002 electoral roll or logical discrepancies have been resolved so far, officials said.

In a late-evening announcement on Thursday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the deadline for filing claims and objections from October 31 to November 25.

The period for disposal of claims and objections was extended to December 15. The final electoral roll will now be published on December 22. Under the earlier schedule, the final roll was to be published on December 4.

This is the fifth time the SIR schedule has been extended in Delhi.

The exercise began in the Capital on June 30, when the electoral roll had around 14.5 million voters. The draft roll published on August 31 contained 9.75 million names, reflecting the removal of nearly 4.76 million electors under the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate categories.

Delhi has 14,947 BLOs, 902 assistant electoral registration officers, 70 electoral registration officers and 13 district electoral officers, besides the CEO’s office, tasked with addressing voters’ concerns during the exercise.