Ghaziabad: Political parties gear up to check ‘discrepancies’ in SIR draft rolls

Samajwadi Party said they were trying to find cases where the forms had been filled out but the names of the electors did not appear in the final rolls

A day after the draft electoral rolls, revised under the special intensive revision (SIR) process, were published, the units of various political parties in Ghaziabad on Wednesday said they are preparing to check for any major discrepancies.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office bearers, on the other hand, said that they hadn’t notice any major discrepancy in the draft rolls or during the SIR process so far. (HT Archive)

Of the 2,837,991 electors across five assembly segments, 2,019,852 forms — or 71.17% — have been digitised, district officials announced on Tuesday.

Samajwadi Party said they were trying to find cases where the forms had been filled out but the names of the electors did not appear in the final rolls. “We had a concern to save our votes, and we have been pretty successful in sharing it during the SIR process,” said district officer Faisal Hussain.

The party’s booth-level agents have been asked to check the draft rolls and get in touch with voters to find out any discrepancies. “This will take about a month, as data is voluminous,” he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office bearers, on the other hand, said that they hadn’t notice any major discrepancy in the draft rolls or during the SIR process so far. “We’ve deployed about 6,000-6,500 booth level agents, about three at every polling booth across the city,” said Ghaziabad BJP president Mayank Goel.

The party has also formed a team of about 200 digital volunteers to help any issues online. “Our main task will also be to get in touch with first-time voters and help them add their names to the draft rolls,” added Goel.

Congress also said that they have asked booth-level agents to check the draft rolls. “The work has been initiated by our booth agents across the five assembly segments. The checking process will take time,” said Ashutosh Gupta, Ghaziabad unit media coordinator.

The Ghaziabad district administration officials, meanwhile, said that they have not received any complaints so far about any major discrepancies since the draft rolls were published.

“The public objection stage is on till February 6. Any voter having any issues can contact us. The political parties have also been contacted in this regard,” said Saurabh Bhatt, additional district magistrate (finance and revenue), adding that if any issue emerges, it will be addressed.

The apportionment of the booth was done. But the voter can check their status with the help of an election photo ID card (EPIC),” he added.

The SIR exercise covered the five assembly segments of Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, and Modinagar. Officials said 28.83% of forms were classified as uncollectible, largely due to absent, shifted, dead (ASD) cases.

According to official statistics, as of January 6, the ASD category includes 63,824 deceased voters (2.25%), 319,838 untraceable voters (11.27%), 359,889 voters who had shifted (12.68%), 31,787 already enrolled voters (1.12%), and 42,798 listed under “others” (1.51%).