Draft SIR rolls released: 21.14% pruned in state, 34.75% in Mumbai

The figures were announced by the state chief electoral officer, who released the draft electoral rolls on Monday after completion of the enumeration phase of the SIR

MUMBAI: The draft electoral rolls released after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted across Maharashtra has seen 20.68 million electors, or 21.14%, dropped from the voters’ list across the state. In Mumbai, 34.75% names have been deleted, while the number is even higher for Thane district, where 38.37% voters have been dropped – the highest for any district in the state.

Draft SIR rolls released: 21.14% pruned in state, 34.75% in Mumbai

The figures were announced by the state chief electoral officer, who released the draft electoral rolls on Monday after completion of the enumeration phase of the SIR. Voters whose names are missing from the draft rolls, those who require corrections and others who want to file objections must do this by September 30 along with supporting documents. This constitutes the next phase of the SIR exercise. The final electoral rolls will be published on November 4.

Breaking down the figures, the office of the state chief electoral officer said that across Maharashtra, of the 97,854,049 registered voters, as many as 20,688,487 electors, or 21.14%, have been excluded from the draft electoral rolls who could not be traced at their given addresses during the SIR exercise. This includes 1.76 million voters who were excluded because they were registered at more than one polling booth, taking the number of actual exclusions from the draft rolls to over 19 million, not 20.68 million.

According to the state election office, among those dropped, 7.68 million voters have permanently shifted, 7.55 million are absent from their given addresses, 3.48 million are deceased, 1.76 million were registered in more than one constituency. Another 223,000 refused to register despite being found at their respective addresses.

“When one accounts for duplicate voters and deceased voters, the actual number excluded from the draft rolls drops to 15.6 million,” election officials said.

The deletions in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane are relatively high. Data from the state election office reveals that in Mumbai, of the total 10.39 million voters, 3.61 million or 34.75% have been dropped – 2.65 million from the Mumbai suburban district and 950,720 from the Mumbai city district. In Thane, of the total 7,450,515 electors, 2.86 million or 38.37% have been deleted.

“The percentage is high for Mumbai and other cities compared to rural areas because of the high floating population and number of migrants. Voters register themselves in new constituencies after shifting but do not delete their names in previous constituencies,” said an election official.

Thane has the highest number of deletions in the state. “This is due to two reasons. One, the rate of migration is high compared to other cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Second, since many in Thane travel to Mumbai for work, electors were not traceable at their residences during the enumeration process. “We suspect this left many off the draft rolls,” the official added.

Political parties, however, contend that among the 77.16 million electors who have found their names in the draft, as many as 6.1 million were not mapped with their 2004 SIR records. “Many of them, as well as electors in the draft with anomalies in their names or age, are likely to be dropped from the final list if they fail to produce documents to prove their 2004 records for nationality or fail to rectify the anomalies by producing documents. This means more names are likely to be deleted when the final rolls are published after three months,” said a senior Congress leader from Maharashtra,

State chief electoral officer (CEO) S Chockalingam underlined that the list released on Monday was a draft electoral roll, not the final one. “Those who are in the ‘absent’ or ‘shifted’ voter category have a chance to add their names in the next phase, which started on Monday, by filing Form 6. They can find their names once the final electoral rolls are published in October. Also, first-time voters who are now eligible can enrol as new voters,” he said.

The draft rolls are available on the ECI’s Voter Service Portal, Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer’s website and district election officers’ websites. Lists of voters whose names have been excluded, along with the reasons for exclusion, are also available.

Voters can file claims and objections between August 31 and September 30. Eligible voters whose names are missing can apply for inclusion through Form 6, while objections to names can be filed through Form 7 and corrections through Form 8.

The election authorities will also issue notices to voters included in the draft roll whose names could not be mapped to the 2004 electoral rolls, as well as those in whose records anomalies have been found. These voters can submit documents for verification.

After claims and objections are heard until October 29, the final electoral rolls will be published on November 4.

The Opposition, however, has blamed the EC for a lack of transparency. “The poll body has not provided us with full information about electors who have been deleted and those who are expected to receive notices. The booth-level officers did not reach the homes of 92% of electors whose names have been deleted. Most of the names deleted are from constituencies represented by opposition parties,” alleged Sandesh Kondvilkar, Mumbai Congress leader and the party’s SIR in-charge.

During the SIR exercise, polling booths too were rationalised, resulting in 37 fewer polling stations in the state. In some places, booths have been merged, and in other places, the locations of booths have been changed, mainly in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar districts.