As many as 97.16% of the 12.22 million voters flagged for anomalies and non-mapping after the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have completed their verification in Maharashtra. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has received 2.17 million applications for the addition and deletion of names and correction of voter details during the exercise.
The ECI announced sweeping changes in the SIR procedure amid mounting criticism on September 26. “We expect the remaining 3% of electors to come forward and submit the required documents. As of November 1, the ECI had received 1.41 million Form 6 applications seeking inclusion. The ECI received 92,436 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names. In addition, 675,338 Form 8 applications were received from existing electors seeking corrections to their voter details. “Of the 15.23 million electors whose names were left out of the draft rolls and over 3.5 million first-time voters who are yet to be enrolled, fewer than 10% have applied for inclusion.
Because there are no immediate elections scheduled in the state for at least the next three years,” said a poll official, the response has been poor, possibly. Till then, applicants had to physically appear before EROs on a prescribed date and time to furnish their papers. The facility of home visits was largely limited to the controversial category of VIP voters. These include electors whose names were left out of the draft roll for reasons, including absence or shifting, as well as first-time voters. These can be submitted either by electors seeking deletion of their names or by others in the constituency who have information about an elector’s death or permanent shifting. The applications for inclusion in the electoral rolls remain relatively low.
It said voters issued notices “for being unmapped and logical discrepancies” will no longer need to appear for a personal hearing before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). The ECI said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would visit such voters at home to collect documents, which will be uploaded to the ECINet portal for decision by the ERO. Chief electoral officer S Chockalingam said they have also published assembly constituency-wise lists of electors whose notices are yet to be disposed of.
