New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has removed the names of about 6.5 crore electors from draft electoral rolls published across nine states and three Union territories as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise, officials said this week.
Before the second phase of the revision began, the 12 states and Union territories together had 50.90 crore registered voters. After the publication of separate draft rolls in recent days, the figure declined to 44.40 crore, reflecting the scale of deletions carried out during the process.
According to officials of the Election Commission of India, voters whose names were removed have been placed under the “ASD” category, which includes those marked as absent, shifted, dead or listed more than once. The commission has said the exercise is based on verification of current residence and eligibility. Officials also pointed to uneven participation during the revision. They said trends so far indicate that the collection of enumeration forms has been significantly lower in urban areas than in rural regions across the states and Union territories covered by the exercise. Uttar Pradesh provides a stark example of the impact of the revision. The draft electoral roll published on Tuesday after the completion of the exercise excluded 2.89 crore voters, while retaining 12.55 crore names. An election official told a press conference that the excluded voters accounted for 18.70 per cent of the 15.44 crore electors listed earlier. He attributed the deletions to factors such as deaths, permanent migration and multiple registrations. Phase II of the Special Intensive Revision began on November 4 and covers Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Separately, Assam is undergoing a distinct special revision of its electoral rolls.
The commission has said the last Special Intensive Revision carried out in each state will serve as a reference cut off, similar to the use of the 2003 voter list in Bihar during an earlier intensive revision. In most states, the previous such exercise was conducted between 2002 and 2004.
Officials said the primary objective of the current revision is to identify and remove foreign illegal migrants by verifying place of birth. The exercise comes amid intensified enforcement actions in several states against illegal migrants, including those from Bangladesh and Myanmar.