SIR: in Madhya Pradesh ECI will release the draft electoral roll today
SIR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will publish the state’s draft electoral list of voters on Tuesday after almost a month and a half of door-to-door Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work in Madhya Pradesh.
According to preliminary estimates, the names of around 41.8 lakh voters, or 7.2% of the total population, are probably going to be removed from the SIR, official sources in Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Office (CEO) informed IANS.
Out of the 41.8 lakh names that were highlighted, 8.4 lakh voters were discovered deceased, another 8.4 lakh were declared absent, 22.5 lakh had moved, and 2.5 lakh were enrolled at various residences, according to official sources.
About 4.3 lakh names, or 20.23 percent, are probably going to be removed from the draft electoral lists in Bhopal, where there are 21.25 lakh registered voters.
Gwalior may lose 2.5 lakh of its 16.49 lakh votes, Jabalpur may lose 2.4 lakh of its 19.25 lakh voters, while Indore, with 28.67 lakh voters, had 4.4 lakh names highlighted.
All of these figures, however, are simply estimates, and the precise number of voters eliminated won’t be known until the ECI releases the final electoral draft on Tuesday, an official said.
In five states—Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands—the ECI has extended the deadline for the current SIR of electoral records to December 11.
In Madhya Pradesh, more than 6.65 crore voters were registered in 2023, and more than 65,000 BLOs (Booth Level Officers) were assigned to verify voters door-to-door starting on November 4.
The 55 districts of Madhya Pradesh, which are separated into 10 divisions like Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Chambal, Narmadapuram, Rewa, Sagar, Shahdol, and Ujjain, are home to 230 Assembly seats and 29 Lok Sabha seats.
Since November 4, when the state’s SIR exercise started, over 65,000 booth-level officers (BLOs) have visited homes in cities, towns, and villages to confirm voter information.
Notably, the main opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh consistently opposed the ECI’s actions and criticized it for making political accusations throughout the SIR exercise.
A group of state Congress employees visited the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Bhopal on Monday, claiming that the SIR process was flawed.