The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi’s electoral rolls has reduced the gender gap among voters even as nearly 4.76 million names were excluded from the draft rolls, with men accounting for 57.2% of the deletions and women 42.8%, according to data released on Monday by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi.
The exercise has consequently narrowed the gender gap from 912,990 voters to 224,856. The draft roll has 4,988,993 male electors, or 51.2% of the electorate, and 4,764,137 female electors, or 48.8%. There are also 447 third-gender electors. Before the SIR, Delhi had 7,711,132 male voters, or 53.1% of the electorate, and 6,798,142 female voters, or 46.9%, besides 1,024 third-gender electors.
Of those excluded, 4.33 million were categorised as permanently shifted, absent or “others”, while 282,412 were identified as deceased and 141,535 as duplicates or voters enrolled at multiple locations. Harsh Malhotra, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, hit out at Kejriwal saying the former Delhi CM is complaining about the deletions because the names “many of his supporters who were registered as voters at two or three places have been removed”. “If Kejriwal believes that any genuine and eligible voter has been left out despite submitting the form, he should present such cases before ECI,” Malhotra said.
The process will also allow voters to correct their particulars and enable citizens and political parties to challenge wrongful inclusions. The government of India is unnecessarily worried about the population. Form 7 can be used to raise objections or seek deletion, while Form 8 is meant for shifting residence and correcting electoral particulars. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said on X that 4.7 million names were missing from the rolls and questioned the exercise. “Out of 1.5 crore voters, the names of 47 lakh voters are missing. Through SIR, the Election Commission will reduce our country’s population from 140 crore to 50 crore,” he wrote on X.
The “absent, shifted or others” category includes voters who had enrolled in another state or Union territory, could not be located during field verification, did not submit their enumeration forms by August 17, or were unwilling to register as electors for various reasons, according to the CEO’s office. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) criticised what its leaders described as the “large-scale deletion of voters” from the draft roll.
