After lukewarm response, voter enrolment drive deadline could be extended

MUMBAI: With only 4,29,000 applications collectively received for new voter enrolment and from the 20

MUMBAI: With only 4,29,000 applications collectively received for new voter enrolment and from the 20.7 million electors who were excluded from the draft electoral rolls in the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Election Commission (EC) is expected to extend the September 30 deadline for voter enrolment.

Of the 20.7 million electors who were removed from the draft electoral rolls, 7.68 million were recorded as permanently shifted, 7.55 million were absent from their registered addresses, 3.48 million were reported dead, 1.76 million were identified as duplicated entries and 2,23,000 reportedly refused to participate in the enumeration process.

“However, very few of these have come forward for re-enrolment, and the response from first-time voters is also lukewarm,” said an official. “Of the approximately 18.8 million first timers, shifted and absent electors expected to apply during the four-week drive, only 429,000 people have applied so far. Even during the first special camp held on September 19 and 20, the response was not very encouraging.”

Sandesh Kondvilkar, Maharashtra general secretary of the Congress, said that people were facing many difficulties in enrolling online because of technical glitches. “There are no officials available for offline enrolment either,” he said. “We have demanded a two-month extension to the deadline, as the poor response is likely to result in millions of people being left out of the final electoral rolls.” Kondvilkar also alleged that although linking Aadhaar to one’s voter ID was not mandatory for voter enrolment, the online registration process did not proceed unless Aadhaar details were provided.

Officials are also concerned about the possibility of more exclusions from among the 12.2 million voters who have received notices about anomalies in their records or whose details have not been mapped with the 2002 SIR data. Since producing the required documents can be a tedious process, officials expect that the number of electors ultimately excluded from this group could also be significant.

To help electors to enrol themselves or get anomalies corrected, the EC has organised booth-level camps in the city on September 26 and 27.

Online submission of documents against the notices received by electors can be done on https://voters.eci.gov.in/