New Delhi: The Election Commission has released the draft electoral rolls for four states—Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram, and Sikkim—as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign. Under this process, the names of over 22 lakh individuals have been removed from the rolls in these states. However, the Commission has clarified that those whose names were excluded from the draft list will be given an opportunity to have their names re-enrolled. According to the Election Commission, the electoral rolls in these four states were scrutinized under the SIR campaign, resulting in the removal of more than 22 lakh names from the draft lists.
The Election Commission launched the SIR campaign in June of last year. The drive has already concluded in states such as Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh. Under this campaign, the names of 65 lakh voters in Bihar, 37 lakh in West Bengal, and 25 lakh in Uttar Pradesh were removed from the electoral rolls. According to Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer R.S. Gopalan, over 20 lakh names were deleted; this included 8.3 lakh deceased individuals, 10 lakh who had either migrated or were found absent, and 1.5 lakh who were registered in multiple locations.
Manipur’s Chief Electoral Officer Arun Kumar Sinha stated that 7,394 voters were found registered in more than one place, while 43,000 were deceased. Additionally, there were 108,283 voters whose details could not be conclusively verified. The state has a total of 1,934,399 voters, comprising 940,466 men, 993,660 women, and 294 voters belonging to the third gender. In Mizoram, the names of over 46,000 voters were removed; this represents a deletion rate of 5.2%, the lowest among the four states. Previously, Sikkim had 4.7 lakh voters; following this campaign, the list now contains 4.3 lakh voters. However, the Election Commission has clarified that individuals whose names were removed from the draft list will be given an opportunity to have their names re-enrolled. The final electoral roll will be released after the process of addressing all claims and objections is completed.
