Delhi SIR narrows gender gap as voter roll shrinks 32.8%

Critics, including AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, allege large-scale deletions, while the CEO verifies many voters were removed due to various reasons.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi’s electoral rolls has reduced the gender gap among voters even as nearly 4.76 million names were excluded from the draft rolls, with men accounting for 57.2% of the deletions and women 42.8%, according to data released on Monday by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi.

Overall, the draft roll contains 9,753,577 electors -- a 32.8% decline from the 14,510,299 names on the rolls as of June 20. (PTI)

Of the 4,756,722 electors not included in the draft roll, 2.72 million were men and 2.03 million were women, a statement by the Delhi CEO said. In effect, the male electorate is now 35% smaller, while the female electorate is down by 29.9% as compared with the rolls used before the SIR.

The exercise has consequently narrowed the gender gap from 912,990 voters to 224,856. The draft roll has 4,988,993 male electors, or 51.2% of the electorate, and 4,764,137 female electors, or 48.8%. There are also 447 third-gender electors.

Before the SIR, Delhi had 7,711,132 male voters, or 53.1% of the electorate, and 6,798,142 female voters, or 46.9%, besides 1,024 third-gender electors.

Overall, the draft roll contains 9,753,577 electors -- a 32.8% decline from the 14,510,299 names on the rolls as of June 20.

The CEO’s office said 9.75 million enumeration forms were collected by booth-level officers (BLOs) during the enumeration exercise between June 30 and August 17, covering 67.22% of the electorate. The remaining 4.76 million electors were not included in the draft roll.

Of those excluded, 4.33 million were categorised as permanently shifted, absent or “others”, while 282,412 were identified as deceased and 141,535 as duplicates or voters enrolled at multiple locations.

According to the CEO’s office, the “absent, shifted or others” category includes voters who had enrolled in another state or Union territory, could not be located during field verification, did not submit their enumeration forms by August 17, or were unwilling to register as electors for various reasons.

The exercise resulted in a decline in electoral entries across all 70 Assembly constituencies, with reductions ranging from 16.5% to 47.8%.

Information on what you need to do (HT Print)

Claims, objections open till Sept 30

The CEO’s office stressed that exclusion from the draft roll does not mean a genuine voter has lost the right to be enrolled.

Electors who could not submit their enumeration forms during the June 30-August 17 window can seek inclusion during the claims and objections period, which opened on Monday and will continue until September 30. They can file Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration.

The process will also allow voters to correct their particulars and enable citizens and political parties to challenge wrongful inclusions. Form 7 can be used to raise objections or seek deletion, while Form 8 is meant for shifting residence and correcting electoral particulars.

The SIR was conducted through 13,033 BLOs across an equal number of polling stations in Delhi. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) criticised what its leaders described as the “large-scale deletion of voters” from the draft roll. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said on X that 4.7 million names were missing from the rolls and questioned the exercise. “Out of 1.5 crore voters, the names of 47 lakh voters are missing. The government of India is unnecessarily worried about the population. Through SIR, the Election Commission will reduce our country’s population from 140 crore to 50 crore,” he wrote on X.

HT reached out to the office of Delhi CEO, for a comment on Kejriwal’s allegation, but did not receive a response.

Harsh Malhotra, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, hit out at Kejriwal saying the former Delhi CM is complaining about the deletions because the names “many of his supporters who were registered as voters at two or three places have been removed”. “If Kejriwal believes that any genuine and eligible voter has been left out despite submitting the form, he should present such cases before ECI,” Malhotra said.