Mumbai: With just 3.9 lakh applications received from 1.52 crore electors whose names were left out of the draft electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and the first time voters, the Maharashtra election machinery is taking its enrolment campaign to schools and colleges to reach first-time voters. Booth-level officers (BLOs) will also accept documents from electors through WhatsApp to ease the process.
The move follows the Election Commission’s decision to extend the deadline for filing claims and objections to October 12, This comes days after reports disclosed objections raised internally by two of its three commissioners over the conduct of the SIR exercise.
The claims and objections process began on August 30. Since then, only 3.9 lakh applications have been received from the 1.52 crore electors classified as absent from their addresses or permanently shifted.
Of these, 76.8 lakh were classified as permanently shifted and 75.5 lakh as absent. More than four million potential first-time voters have also not registered since October 2024, the cut-off date fixed ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections.
The state election office has received 2.43 lakh applications seeking corrections to voter details and around 5,000 complaints challenging the eligibility of existing voters.
“With the EC giving us an extension of the deadline till October 12, we are organising camps at the polling booths on the next two weekends to facilitate the left-out electors. Apart from this, we are organising camps in schools and colleges to attract first-time voters,” chief electoral officer S Chockalingam said.
{{/usCountry}}“With the EC giving us an extension of the deadline till October 12, we are organising camps at the polling booths on the next two weekends to facilitate the left-out electors. Apart from this, we are organising camps in schools and colleges to attract first-time voters,” chief electoral officer S Chockalingam said.
{{/usCountry}}Electors can submit Form 6 online or hand it over to BLOs, electoral registration officers or booth-level agents appointed by political parties.
The election machinery is also processing cases involving 1.22 crore electors whose details have been flagged for verification. As of September 28, notices had been generated for 1.21 crore of them.
“Barring 47,000 of them, notices have been generated for the rest of such electors. We have allowed the BLOs to serve the notices on WhatsApp and also receive their documents meant for mapping and weeding out the anomalies to facilitate their inclusion back in the rolls,” another official said.
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