Bhubneswar Around 20 lakh voters were excluded from Odisha's draft electoral roll published on Sunday during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
The development was confirmed by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha S Gopalan. As per the Gopalan, the revised draft roll now contains over 3.13 crore voters. The exercise was reportedly carried out between May 30 and June 28 this year. The copies of the revised roll had been provided to all recognised political parties, said Odisha's CEO. "When the SIR process started, there were 3 crore 33 lakh electors. Now, out of that, 20 lakh electors have been deleted, and right now we have 3 crore 13 lakh 87 thousand 34 electors. Out of that, 1 crore 60 lakh 19 thousand 176 are male, 1 crore 53 lakh 65 thousand 83 are female, and 2,775 are third gender," Gopalan told ANI. According to the CEO, 20,12,557 electors had been removed from the draft roll for various reasons. "Ten lakh seven thousand are deleted because they have shifted or they are absent. 1.58 lakh are deleted because of multiple entries; they have registered themselves in more than one place. Fourteen thousand electors have not returned their form for various reasons known to them. And therefore, right now we have in the draft roll three crore thirteen lakh eighty-seven thousand electors," he added. Gopalan urged eligible voters to verify their names in the draft electoral roll and submit claims or objections if required. Voters have been given one month's time till 4th August to file their objections with the Booth Level Officer (BLO). "They can verify their name in the draft electoral roll either by visiting the website of CEO Odisha or by ECI's website or by contacting their BLO. If their name is not in the draft roll, then they are requested to file--if they are eligible on 1.7.2026--they can file their claim through Form 6," Odisha's CEO said. The CEO further said the revision exercise had uncovered nearly 50 lakh anomalies in the electoral roll.
BJD Raises Concerns:
Odisha's opposition party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) raised concerns over the recently published draft electoral roll. Following the release of the draft roll on Sunday, BJD Vice President Debi Prasad Mishra spoke to ANI, expressing deep concern over the scale of deletions."Today, in accordance with the schedule, the draft electoral roll has been released following the initial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process," Mishra stated. "Before this, we had raised our concerns with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha regarding the data indicating that over 20 lakh voters have not been included," he added.
