Bhubaneswar: Over 20.14 lakh voters have been identified for deletion from the electoral rolls in Odisha after the month-long enumeration conducted as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list.
After the month-long exercise involving door-to-door survey, the office of the Chief Electoral Office (CEO) of Odisha published the draft electoral rolls on Sunday.
According to the draft roll, the total number of electors in the state has come down from 3,33,99,591 before the revision to 3,13,87,034. It implies that nearly 20 lakh names have been identified for deletion. The draft roll includes 1.60 crore male and 1.53 crore female voters.
At the same time, around 1.98 lakh new voters have been added to the electoral rolls so far as part of the ongoing revision process, said officials.
The deletions were made after verification during the enumeration phase. Among those removed, 8.32 lakh voters were found to be deceased, 10.07 lakh had shifted from their registered addresses or were absent during the verification process, and 1.58 lakh were found to have been enrolled at multiple locations. Another 0.14 lakh names were categorised under other reasons.
Chief Electoral Officer R S Gopalan said the draft electoral roll has been shared with all recognised political parties. He said voters whose names are missing from the draft list have been given one month time up to August 4 to submit claims and objections through their Booth Level Officer (BLO). They can also verify their names on the websites of the CEO, Odisha, and the Election Commission of India (ECI).
All claims and objections will be settled by September 2, and the final electoral roll will be published on September 6.
