Nearly 47.7 lakh voter names out of 1.45 crore are likely to be left out of the draft electoral roll to be published on Monday under the Special Intensive
Revision, with the final roll due on November 4. Those excluded in the draft roll can seek inclusion by filing claims and objections from August 31 to September 30, officials said. The draft roll will contain around 97.5 lakh electors, whose enumeration forms were submitted and digitised during the door-to-door exercise that concluded on August 17, accounting for 67.18 per cent of Delhi's 1,45,10,299 electors, according to figures released by the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The remaining 47.7 lakh electors have been marked "uncollectable" and placed in the "Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO)" categories. They will not appear in the draft roll but can seek inclusion by filing claims and objections from August 31 to September 30, officials said. The publication of the draft will also begin the next phase of scrutiny, with some electors whose names figure in the roll likely to receive notices if their details could not be linked to the 2002 intensive revision roll or if anomalies were detected in their enumeration forms, officials said. A Delhi CEO official said such anomalies could include a mismatch between an elector's name in the current roll and the 2002 roll, an age gap of less than 15 years or more than 50 years between an elector and a parent, or a gap of less than nine months between the birth dates of siblings. The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) may seek additional documents where there are doubts about an elector's age or citizenship, the official said. Aadhaar alone will not be sufficient to establish eligibility. The documentary requirements will also vary according to an elector's date of birth. Those born in India before July 1, 1987, will need a document establishing their date and/or place of birth; those born between July 1, 1987 and December 2, 2004, will need documents for themselves and one parent; and those born after December 2, 2004, will need documents for themselves and both parents, officials said. The scale of exclusions has varied sharply across Delhi's 70 Assembly constituencies. Rohini recorded the highest digitisation of enumeration forms at 83.43 per cent, while Tughlakabad recorded the lowest at 52.15 per cent, according to the CEO's data. Among minority-dominated constituencies, Okhla had 1,64,435 of its 3,62,813 forms, or 45.32 per cent, marked uncollectable. Chandni Chowk recorded 38.98 per cent, followed by Ballimaran at 32.65 per cent, Mustafabad at 28.09 per cent, Babarpur at 27 per cent, Matia Mahal at 24.50 per cent and Seelampur at 23.37 per cent. BLOs had earlier reported difficulties in linking residents in areas such as Shaheen Bagh and Jasola Vihar with the 2002 roll, particularly among migrant families from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal. At the other end, several constituencies recorded relatively high digitisation. Shakurbasti stood at 81.26 per cent, Rajouri Garden at 79.14 per cent, Mangolpuri at 78.76 per cent and Uttam Nagar at 77.76 per cent. Among the minority-dominated seats, Seelampur recorded 76.63 per cent digitisation, Matia Mahal 75.50 per cent, Babarpur 73 per cent, Mustafabad 71.91 per cent and Ballimaran 67.35 per cent, while Chandni Chowk recorded 61.02 per cent. The SIR exercise has simultaneously brought changes to Delhi's polling-station network. The number of polling stations has increased from 13,033 to 14,947, while the number of polling-station locations has risen from 2,696 to 2,856. The changes follow the Election Commission's decision to reduce the maximum number of electors assigned to a polling station from 1,500 to 1,200 for voters' convenience. North East Delhi now has the highest number of polling stations at 1,829 across 321 locations, while New Delhi has the lowest at 214. The claims and objections filed after publication of the draft will be examined before the notice and disposal process concludes on October 29. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4, according to the revised EC schedule.
