The draft electoral rolls released on Tuesday after the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reveal a significant contraction in the electorate, with a cumulative reduction of 7.6 per cent and more than one crore voter names removed.
Figures released by the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of the five states and Union Territories show that the total number of electors has fallen from 13.35 crore on October 27, the date on which the Election Commission announced the SIR, to 12.33 crore in the draft electoral rolls.
The draft rolls include only those electors who submitted their forms during the enumeration phase, which began on November 4. According to the CEOs, the remaining 1.02 crore electors were categorised as “shifted/absent”, “deceased” or “enrolled at multiple places”.
The scale of deletion broadly mirrors the outcome of the Bihar SIR conducted in August, where nearly 8 per cent of the electorate was removed from the rolls.
Rajasthan
Rajasthan alone accounts for the deletion of about 42 lakh voter names, representing 7.66 per cent of the electorate. Of these, 8.75 lakh names (1.6 per cent) belong to deceased voters, 29.6 lakh (5.43 per cent) to electors who have permanently shifted or were absent, and 3.44 lakh (0.63 per cent) to voters found to be already enrolled or duplicated.
District-wise data show that over 5.3 lakh names were deleted in Jaipur, while Ajmer, Kota, Alwar, Sikar and Pali each saw the removal of more than one lakh voters.
The draft electoral roll does not include data for the Anta Assembly constituency, as a by-election was held there last month.
Goa
In Goa, more than one lakh voter names were removed from the draft electoral rolls. Goa CEO Sanjay Goel stated that of the total 11,85,034 electors, 10,84,992, or 91.56 per cent, submitted their enumeration forms.
Data shared by the Goa CEO show that among the 1,00,042 deleted names, 25,574 were identified as deceased, 29,729 as untraceable or absent, 40,469 as having permanently shifted, and 1,997 as already enrolled at multiple locations. Another 2,273 voters were categorised as “others”, described as individuals who were not willing to register as electors for unspecified reasons.
The deletions were nearly evenly split between the two districts, with 44,639 names removed in North Goa and 55,403 in South Goa.
Puducherry
In Puducherry, the draft electoral rolls show the removal of more than 1.03 lakh voter names. In an official statement, the Puducherry CEO said that “A total of 1,03,467 enumeration forms of the 10,21,578 distributed were uncollectable due to reasons such as death, migration, duplication, or non-submission.”
As a result, the draft rolls now list 9,18,111 electors.
According to the data released, 20,798 electors were identified as deceased, 80,645 were marked as shifted or absent from their registered addresses, and 2,024 names were flagged as enrolled at multiple locations. These electors will be retained at only one location in accordance with SIR guidelines.
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