Bhubaneswar: More than 20 lakh names have been deleted from Odisha’s voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, as the Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls on Sunday.
According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R. S. Gopalan, the state had 3.33 crore registered voters as on May 20, when the electoral roll was frozen ahead of the revision process.
After the enumeration phase of the SIR conducted between May 30 and June 28, the number of voters in the draft roll has come down to 3.13 crore. The updated list includes 1.60 crore male voters, 1.53 crore female voters and 2,775 third-gender voters.
The CEO said that of the over 20 lakh names removed, 8.32 lakh voters were found to be deceased, 10.07 lakh had either shifted to other locations or remained absent during verification, and 1.58 lakh names were identified as being registered in multiple constituencies. In addition, around 14,000 voters did not submit their enumeration forms to Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
Gopalan said voters whose names do not appear in the draft electoral roll can file claims and objections through BLOs, the ECINET mobile application, or the voters.eci.gov.in portal.
The claims and objections process will remain open until August 4. Scrutiny will be carried out by 147 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and 994 Assistant EROs, with the final electoral roll scheduled to be published on September 6.
He added that additional officers may be deployed if required to ensure timely disposal of all claims and objections within the stipulated deadline.
