Mumbai, Sep 10 (PTI) The Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra on Thursday said the roll published under the first phase of SIR-2026 is a draft and comparing it with the previous voter list would be inappropriate, as the current revision process is still underway.
Any conclusions drawn from the draft roll could lead to misunderstandings, the CEO said.
The explanation came after reports claimed that the number of voters in the draft roll was lower than the total votes cast in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
In a media release, the CEO said the first phase of the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) exercise focused primarily on verifying whether voters ordinarily resided at the addresses provided by them.
As a result, people who were not found
residing at the addresses mentioned in their applications were not included in the draft roll. However, voters who were absent from their registered addresses or had shifted elsewhere but continued to reside within Maharashtra can now apply to have their names included at their current residential addresses, it said.
The CEO also said names of deceased voters had been removed from the roll, while the process of registering new voters who turned 18 after October 1, 2024, has now begun.
The current phase of the SIR exercise is focused on adding new names to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the electoral roll, it said. The entire exercise is scheduled to be completed in early November.
The CEO urged all stakeholders and citizens to wait for publication of the final electoral roll before making any comparison or assessment. Any conclusions drawn from the draft roll could lead to misunderstandings, it said in the release.
A total of 2.07 crore voters, or 21.15 per cent of the total electorate in Maharashtra, have been placed under the “Uncollectable EF” (Enumeration Form) category during the SIR of electoral rolls, the CEO had said last month. PTI ND NR
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