The draft electoral rolls, which will be published on August 24, will likely exclude over 20.8 million or 21.25% electors in the state, as the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) ended on Monday. Over 3.66 million or 35.24% electors in Mumbai and its suburbs are set to be deleted from the draft rolls. The Election Commission will furnish the final number of the deleted voters on Tuesday.
According to the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Maharashtra, until 10 am on Monday, 2,07,93,916 enumeration forms were classified as non-collectible of the total 9,78,540,49 electors. This means these many electors were not traceable when the booth level officers (BLOs) visited their houses on the registered address. The electors were either absent, had moved, were deceased or registered at more than one address – classified as duplicates -- (ASDD); and the officers failed to get any response for the enumeration.
In Mumbai, constituencies such as Worli, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, Malad West, Colaba and Malabar Hill have registered the highest number of untraceable voters, while the percentage of enumeration remained highest in constituencies such as Borivali and Mulund. The percentage of enumeration has been far more encouraging in the rural parts compared to cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur because of the high rate of migration in urban areas.
Election commission officials said electors from the ASDD category who have not been traced despite multiple attempts by BLOs are unlikely to be part of the electoral rolls which will be released next week.
“The final figures of the enumeration in SIR will be released on Tuesday after the digitisation of 47,000 enumeration forms that were collected on the last day. The final draft electoral rolls will be announced on August 24 and one month will be given to submit suggestions and objections,” said an official from ECI. The officer said eligible electors who are deleted from the rolls will get an opportunity to contest the deletion within one month after the draft rolls are published.
The numbers are not convincing for many – Congress’s Mumbadevi MLA Amin Patel has complained to the CEO, stating BLOs did not distribute the enumeration forms to the eligible voters. “The BLOs did not reach the eligible voters and marked them as permanently shifted without verifying their current status. For instance, Mumbadevi constituency has 2,41,959 electors, and of them 95,538 or 39% have been shown as permanently shifted or deceased,” Patel wrote in a letter to the CEO.
Surendra P Gangan is Senior Assistant Editor with political bureau of Hindustan Times’ Mumbai Edition. He covers state politics and Maharashtra government’s administrative stories. Reports on the developments in finances, agriculture, social sectors among others.Read More
