EC to delete 8.5L extra names from Mumbai and Thane electoral rolls

The Election Commission (EC) has started a drive to delete the names of 8.5 lakh voters in Mumbai and Thane district, who have shifted, died or do not live in the constituency from the voters’ list.

The Election Commission (EC) has started a drive to delete the names of 8.5 lakh voters in Mumbai and Thane district, who have shifted, died or do not live in the constituency from the voters’ list.

The Thane and city civic bodies will face elections in 2017. After the Assembly elections, the state branch of the EC started the procedure of cleaning up the rolls, which have 8.33 crore registered voters.

According to the ratio of voters to the population, the number of voters should not exceed 8.07 crore (people above 18 years).

After launching the drive in April this year, the EC served notices to 14.72 lakh voters in the state for deletion of their names. The notices were served to those on the ASD (absent, shifted, died) list prepared after visits by block-level officials in each of the districts.

Mumbai suburban district tops the list, with 6.27 lakh of the voters to be deleted, followed by 1.66 lakh in Thane, 1.62 lakh in Nashik and 55,068 voters in Pune. Mumbai island and Palghar districts have 10,985 and 45,188 voters proposed to be deleted respectively.

“Notices are being served to voters found missing from the given address. They are given time to respond with the necessary documents,” said Anil Valvi, joint chief electoral officer, EC. “After a stipulated time, we will delete the names from the list. We are publishing the draft roll on October 1,” he added.

Valvi said they expect at least 18 lakh voters to be deleted till the date of publication of the draft rolls.

Another official said they started the process well before the civic elections in 2017 to ensure voters have enough time to get the name re-enrolled if he/she has dispute over the deletion. “The inflated rolls reduce the percentage of voting. There were many repeated voters during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, but we could not carry out deletion drives, as they were not allowed in election year,” he said.