Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer has ordered Booth Level Officers to identify and re-enrol eligible voters left out of the draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision, a move affecting around 47.5 lakh electors classified as “uncollectible” during the exercise.
The order directs BLOs to identify eligible people during their ongoing house-to-house visits and facilitate their enrolment through Form 6, the application used by new voters to register. Officers have also been told to carry blank Form 6 applications and ensure that physical applications are not refused.
The Chief Electoral Officer’s office has directed that Form 6 applications be digitised within two days of receipt and that no application be rejected on frivolous grounds. The instruction comes as electoral authorities continue processing objections and eligibility checks before Delhi’s final electoral roll is published on December 4.
Delhi had around 1.45 crore electors before the revision process began. Of these, 97.5 lakh were included in the draft electoral roll published on August 31. Around 47.5 lakh were classified as “uncollectible” after BLOs found them absent, shifted, deceased or associated with duplicate entries, among other reasons.
The re-enrolment exercise will run alongside verification of 33.1 lakh electors who were included in the draft roll but issued notices to establish their eligibility for the final list. This group includes 13.79 lakh people who could not be linked to the electoral roll from the previous SIR and 19.33 lakh whose enumeration forms contained what authorities described as “logical discrepancies”.
BLOs are currently visiting the homes of electors who received notices to collect documents. The house-to-house process replaced an earlier requirement for many electors to attend hearings at local election offices. The change is particularly significant for residents who may face difficulties travelling to government offices or producing documents within a limited period.
Between August 31 and October 15, only 2.3 lakh Form 6 applications had been filed in Delhi. The latest direction therefore expands the responsibility of BLOs from checking existing entries to actively facilitating the enrolment of eligible people who were left out of the draft roll.
The move follows directions from the Election Commission of India for the 20 states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise has been completed to conduct special drives for voters left out of the rolls. In Delhi, electoral authorities have also been organising weekend camps since September 20, including targeted camps for homeless people, residents displaced by demolitions, transgender people and sex workers.
The next formal milestone is publication of Delhi’s final electoral roll on December 4, after the ongoing re-verification, document collection and enrolment process is completed.
