Ranchi, July 30: More than 43.74 lakh electors are proposed to be excluded from Jharkhand’s draft electoral roll as the Election Department completed the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the draft roll and the Absentee, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD) list scheduled for publication on August 5.
According to official figures, Jharkhand has a total of 2,64,63,236 registered electors. Of these, 2,20,88,937 voters submitted duly signed enumeration forms and will be included in the draft electoral roll. However, 43,74,272 voters who failed to submit signed enumeration forms have been proposed for exclusion from the draft list.
The proposed exclusions comprise 7,63,997 deceased voters (2.89%), 14,60,169 untraceable or absent voters (5.52%), 15,93,516 voters who have permanently shifted their residence (6.02%), 4,38,560 duplicate voters already enrolled elsewhere (1.66%), and 1,18,030 voters (0.45%) who declined to sign the enumeration forms.
Election officials clarified that the names identified during the exercise are only proposed for exclusion from the draft electoral roll and have not been permanently deleted. They said the final status of these electors will be determined after the completion of the claims and objections process.
Following the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 5, eligible voters whose names are missing will be able to submit claims along with the required documents to seek inclusion before the final electoral roll is published.
The Election Department also announced that it has completed 100 per cent digitisation of enumeration records, marking the successful completion of the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision exercise.
Chief Electoral Officer K Ravi Kumar appealed to recognised political parties, Booth Level Officers (BLOs), Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and other stakeholders to actively participate in the verification process.
“Recognised political parties, Booth Level Officers (BLOs), Booth Level Agents (BLAs), and other stakeholders should actively participate in the claims and objections process to ensure that no eligible voter is omitted from the final electoral roll,” Kumar said.
Officials added that the final number of deletions, if any, will be known only after all claims and objections are scrutinised and disposed of before the publication of the final electoral roll.
