New Delhi: A fortnight after nearly 47.6 lakh voters’ names were deleted from Delhi’s draft electoral roll, only a fraction of them have submitted Form 6 for re-inclusion in the electoral roll. The draft roll was published on Aug 31 and the window for filing claims and objections will close on Sept 30.
“We expected that over 10% of the voters who shifted within the city may submit applications for inclusion, but the response is tepid. Because of various reasons as the city has a large number of tenants and also migrant workers, “Most of the 47.6 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the draft roll had shifted from their registered addresses.
They failed to submit enumeration forms and their names got deleted,” said an official. The low number of claims has surprised election officials.
The draft roll has 97.5 lakh electors, while Delhi had 1.45 crore registered voters in June when Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll began in the city. Data shows that till Sept 15, 62,583 Form 6 applications, including those by first-timers who have sought inclusion, were submitted, while the tally stood at 68,043 on Sept 16. According to the figures released by the Delhi election office for the claims and objections phase, 91,826 applications have been received under the four categories between Aug 31 and Sept 16. Besides Form 6 applications, they include 22,715 Form 8 applications for correction or modification of existing electoral entries such as name spelling errors, 922 Form 7 applications for request/objection for deletion of a name for reasons such as the person is dead, has shifted, is registered more than once or is otherwise ineligible, and 146 Form 6A applications from overseas electors. The election office Thursday announced that special camps would be held across the city on Sept 23 and 24 to enrol homeless people, third-gender persons, sex workers and others in the electoral rolls.
The camps for homeless people will be organised from 5pm to 9pm at all Dusib night shelters and in other identified pockets. Camps for third-gender persons and sex workers will be held in all districts in coordination with NGOs working for their welfare.