Delhi's voter-roll revision is now at a key stage. The enumeration exercise has been completed, and the draft electoral roll will likely be published on August 24.
The latest data show that the share of digitised voter forms varies widely across the city. This means the number of electors who could be left out of the draft also differs by area.
Delhi had 145 lakh electors before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). By August 17, 97.5 lakh enumeration forms had been digitised, leaving 47.6 lakh forms outside the digitised database. That is 32.82 per cent of the electorate.
The potential deletion is highest in South East Delhi, where 43.68 per cent of electors fall in the non-digitised category. This is followed by New Delhi at 39.24 per cent, South at 38.68 per cent and Central at 38.04 per cent. At the other end, Outer North has a potential deletion rate of 24.32 per cent, the lowest among the 13 districts.
The Assembly constituency data show an even wider gap. Tughlakabad has the highest potential deletion rate at 47.86 per cent, meaning nearly one in two electors could be left out of the draft roll. Okhla follows at 45.33 per cent, while R K Puram and Kasturba Nagar stand at 44.48 per cent and 44.06 per cent.
The available constituency-level data cover 28 of Delhi's 70 Assembly constituencies. Data for the remaining constituencies were not available.
The current figures are draft-stage potential deletions, not final deletions. Voters left out of the draft roll can file claims and objections between August 24 and September 23. The final electoral roll is scheduled for October 27. Names may therefore be added back after verification, meaning the final number of deletions could be lower than the current 47.6 lakh.
The reason for the non-digitised forms is also significant. Around 75 per cent of the voters in this category appear to have shifted residence, either within Delhi or outside the city. The remaining cases include voters who could not be verified for other reasons.
For now, 32.82 per cent is Delhi's potential draft deletion rate. The actual deletion rate will only be known after the final electoral roll is published in October.
Which States Saw the Biggest Voter Cuts?
SIR has also led to sizeable reductions in voter rolls in states where the exercise has been completed.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands recorded the highest reduction at 16.87 per cent, followed by Gujarat at 13.40 per cent and Uttar Pradesh at 13.24 per cent. Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu saw reductions of 11.77 per cent.
These figures are based on the change between the electorate before SIR and the final electoral roll, and therefore represent net reductions rather than the number of names deleted at an earlier stage.
