Delhi SIR: BLOs to recheck 4.76 million deleted names before final voter roll

The Election Commission has ordered a fresh verification of nearly 4.76 million names removed from Delhi’s draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), in a move aimed at ensuring that eligible voters are not excluded from the final list.

Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar said on Friday that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would revisit the addresses of electors whose names were deleted during the exercise. The re-verification drive has begun in some areas and is scheduled to conclude on October 30.

Around 15,000 BLOs, many of them government school teachers who have been engaged in SIR-related work for almost four months, are expected to visit households across the Capital. The exercise will involve checking hundreds of thousands of addresses to identify possible errors and establish whether any eligible voter has been left out.

“During the enumeration exercise, booth level officers visited the residences of each and every voter at least three times. But we have now directed for this exercise to recheck if there was any error and to ascertain whether any voter was left out,” Kumar said.

Officials asked to assist voters with documentation

The fresh verification comes amid a wider effort to resolve discrepancies identified during the revision of electoral rolls. Kumar said around 2.5 million of the 3.3 million cases flagged for notices over non-mapping to the 2002 electoral roll or logical discrepancies had been resolved so far.

Election officials have also instructed BLOs not to summarily reject applications because of minor errors in voters’ personal details. Where discrepancies concern a person's age or other identifying information, officers have been asked to help voters establish their identity by seeking and examining supporting documents.

The authorities have said the re-verification is intended to identify eligible electors who may have been excluded inadvertently. If a voter who qualifies for inclusion is found, the BLO will help them complete Form 6, the application used by new electors to register or seek inclusion in the electoral roll.

However, officials have clarified that BLOs will visit only the addresses recorded in their official records. They will not move around neighbourhoods searching for individual voters, an official said on condition of anonymity.

Nearly 4.76 million names removed from Delhi’s draft roll

The SIR exercise began in Delhi on June 30, when the electoral roll contained around 14.5 million voters. The draft roll, published on August 31, removed nearly 4.76 million names under the categories of absent, shifted, dead or duplicate (ASDD).

Separately, approximately 3.3 million electors were flagged for logical discrepancies or because their details could not be mapped to the 2002 electoral roll. These cases included Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Election Commissioner SS Sandhu.

The process of addressing these flagged cases is scheduled to continue until November 30, while the final electoral roll is due to be published on December 4.

The re-verification drive is among a series of measures introduced in recent weeks to address concerns over the SIR process. These include changes to certain procedures, provisions allowing people left out of the draft roll to apply as new voters and additional safeguards before names are removed from the electoral list.

Election Commission orders special drive for excluded electors

In a letter dated October 1 to the chief electoral officers of all states and Union territories, the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed officials to conduct a special drive for electors who may have been left out, as well as first-time voters.

Under the exercise, BLOs are required to compare the current electoral roll with the pre-SIR list, identify missing names and visit the corresponding addresses to help eligible people submit Form 6. Officials have been instructed to cover around 20 to 25 electors a week over a period of approximately one month.

On Thursday, the ECI also ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union territories. The exercise, the first of its kind in nearly two years, is expected to facilitate the inclusion of Generation Z and other first-time voters, as well as people whose names were removed during the SIR process.

Delhi, however, is not among the 17 states and Union territories covered by the SSR announcement.

BLOs report repeated visits and difficulties on the ground

Delhi has 14,947 BLOs, 902 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, 70 Electoral Registration Officers and 13 District Electoral Officers, in addition to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, to handle voters’ concerns.

Several BLOs have already begun visiting households whose residents' names were missing from the draft electoral roll.

A BLO in Okhla said more than 1,000 voters in the area had been affected, with around 50% found to have shifted elsewhere. The officer said the area had a large tenant population, many of whom had moved to other localities.

The repeated visits have added to the workload of BLOs, many of whom are also government school teachers.

An Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) teacher working as a BLO in Okhla described the exercise as hectic, explaining that she wakes up at 5 am to attend school, returns home in the afternoon and then leaves again for SIR-related duties. After returning in the evening, she has to manage household responsibilities before resuming election work.

The teacher said she had visited some households several times, while certain voters had not returned their enumeration forms. However, she added that extensions to the deadlines had helped staff balance their regular duties with election-related responsibilities. She said the re-verification exercise would now proceed in accordance with the latest instructions.

Delhi BJP welcomes fresh verification

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor welcomed the ECI's decision on Friday, saying the additional verification reflected transparency and would help ensure that eligible voters were not excluded from the electoral roll.

With the re-verification drive scheduled to conclude on October 30, officials will have to reconcile the findings with the ongoing process of resolving flagged cases before the final electoral roll is published on December 4.