Mumbai: Only 3.9 lakh people have applied to be on the voter list of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state over the past month even though the draft roll had excluded two crore voters. Of the excluded lot, 1.5 crore were recorded as ‘Absent’ or ‘Shifted’, and it is from these categories that re-applications were expected.
The 3.9 lakh voters who applied to be on the SIR voter list include both first-time voters and those re-applying after being excluded from the draft list published on August 31. The period for fresh applications and re-applications ends on October 12. In comparison to the state, the Delhi SIR deleted 47.6 lakh voters’ names from the 1.45 crore voters registered previously, the Karnataka SIR knocked off more than a crore voters, and the West Bengal SIR deleted nearly 91 lakh voters. The 12-day Ganpati festival possibly added to the delay. Officials said literate citizens can submit Form 6 application forms online to the ECI website. As many as 1.22 crore voters in the draft roll were reported as unmapped or had reported anomalies, including mismatch in name, age, gender. Of these, election officials are in the process of issuing notices to 1.2 crore voters.
They said that some of the ‘Absent’ and ‘Shifted’ voters might have permanently migrated to other states. Several citizens said they do not know how to re-apply and have not been able to access booth level officers (BLOs) to help them. “Citizens can also respond to notices by sending their documents on whatsapp to the BLO,” said chief electoral officer S Chockalingam.
They can also attend camps which will be set up at each polling booth the coming weekend. They can also submit their forms to the BLO, a booth level agent of political parties or the electoral registration officer in their district. The chief electoral office has clarified that a personal appearance will not be required to respond to the notices in most cases. A citizen can upload the required documents online to the ECI website. Or hand them over to the BLO when they visit the house.