Delhi’s electoral roll logs dip; number of young voters rises

The dip was fuelled by a large number of deletions in the electoral roll: the names of 397,004 voters who moved away, died, or had duplicate entries.

The number of eligible voters in the Capital has recorded a slight drop — from 14,776,301 in 2023 to 14,718,119 in 2024, the special summary revision 2024, published by the office of Delhi’s chief electoral officer (CEO) on Monday, has revealed.

According to the CEO’s office, 254,470 names were added in the electoral roll during the revision exercise, with 26.7% of the additions (67,930) those of young, first-time voters aged 18 and 19 years. (HT Archive)

This dip was largely fuelled by a large number of deletions in the electoral roll: the names of 397,004 voters who moved away (307,788), died (56,773), or had duplicate entries (32,443).

To be sure, the revision of the electoral rolls is a continuous annual exercise. To conduct elections, the poll panel uses the last available updated rolls till the notification of the polls.

According to the CEO’s office, 254,470 names were added in the electoral roll during the revision exercise, with 26.7% of the additions (67,930) those of young, first-time voters aged 18 and 19 years. The list reveals that 147,074 voters are these young voters, an increase of 9.69% from 134,076 in 2023.

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CEO P Krishnamurthy said, “The special summary revision which commenced on October 27 with January 1, 2024 as the qualifying date has been completed. The objective of the special summary revision 2024 was to achieve a healthy, error-free and authentic electoral roll, and special focus was given on enrolment of young voters in the age group 18-19.”

The CEO added, “In order to achieve good quality electoral roll, purification of electoral roll is also necessary as addition and deletion of names is a continuous process. Accordingly, cases of permanently shifted/ death/ multiple entries identified during house-to-house verification were processed during the summary revision. As a result, a total 397,004 entries from the electoral roll have been deleted.”

According to the special summary revision, Delhi has 7,986,572 male voters and 6,730,371 female voters, while 1,176 identify with the third gender category.

Officials in the CEO’s office said that with efforts made during the summary revision process, the gender ratio of electors has improved from 838 in 2023 to 843 in 2024, demonstrating significant progress in efforts towards electoral inclusion of women.

The officials also noted an increase in the number of voters identifying as neither male nor female, and said that it demonstrates the positive result of special efforts made by the electoral machinery towards ensuring an inclusive electoral roll.

Krishnamurthy urged Delhi residents to use digital services — Election Commission website https://voters.eci.gov.in, and Voter Helpline app — to access various electoral services, noting that they are quicker and more effective. He said that the poll panel’s Saksham app digitally enables differently abled citizens to avail electoral services.

The officials cited above said that the poll body held multiple activities such as street corner plays, and publicity exercise to raise awareness among prospective voters about participating in the electoral processes.

In addition, 9,335 prospective electors, who are going to attain the age of 18 years with respect to the subsequent qualifying dates in 2024 such as April 1, the July 1, or October 1, have also filed advance claims for the inclusion of their names in the electoral roll, which will be decided in the respective quarter of the year, the officials said.