The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to the exclusion of a significant number of voters in Gujarat, raising concerns over the scale of deletions during the enumeration exercise. Around 73.7 lakh voters have been removed from Gujarat's voter list.
Of Gujarat's total voters, 85.5 per cent submitted their Enumeration Forms, or EFs. The remaining 73.7 lakh names were excluded. Among them, 51.86 lakh electors (10.20 per cent) were marked as 'shifted' or 'absent', 18.07 lakh (3.55 per cent) were recorded as 'deceased', and 3.81 lakh electors (0.75 per cent) were found enrolled at multiple places in the electoral roll.
Draft voter rolls were also released for Tamil Nadu, leading to the removal of 97.28 lakh electors.
According to the data, 5.43 crore electors submitted EFs, reflecting 84.81 per cent coverage.
Of those excluded, 66.4 lakh electors (10.36 per cent) were categorised as 'shifted' or 'absent', 26.9 lakh (4.20 per cent) were marked 'deceased', and 3.98 lakh electors (0.62 per cent) were identified as being enrolled at multiple locations.
Election officials maintain that the exclusions are part of a routine cleansing exercise aimed at removing duplicate, deceased and non-resident electors to ensure accuracy in the rolls. They have also clarified that names found at multiple places will be retained only at one location, as per electoral rules.
At the same time, the Election Commission have stated that genuine electors who were left out can still be re-included during the claims and objections period, provided they submit the required documents.
Political parties, however, are closely monitoring the process, citing concerns that large-scale exclusions could impact voter participation if eligible electors fail to get their names restored in time.
The EC has already extended date for seven states including Uttar Pradesh and Kerala.
As far as the pan-India SIR is concerned, the opposition has argued, as it did for Bihar, that the SIR is a ruse by which the BJP and the Election Commission have colluded to manipulate election results. The Election Commission has rubbished the allegation, as has the BJP.
The EC has argued it is empowered by the Constitution to periodically revise voter lists, an argument the Supreme Court accepted, and the BJP has pointed to elections in which it was defeated, asking why, if it were manipulating polls, it did not orchestrate wins in those too.
Meanwhile, earlier this week the Bengal SIR first list was also released. A total of 58 lakh names were deleted.
