Delhi’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has resolved around 26 lakh of the 33.12 lakh cases flagged for “no mapping” or “logical discrepancy”, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said on October 17. About 7.12 lakh cases therefore remain unresolved, based on the figures released by the Delhi election authorities.
The cases relate to electors included in Delhi’s draft electoral roll who received notices after their details were identified as either unmapped or inconsistent with the 2002 base roll. The CEO’s office said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are visiting electors to collect supporting documents, with the stated objective of ensuring that no eligible voter is left out of the final roll.
The scale of the exercise is significant. Delhi’s draft roll contains 97.56 lakh names, of which 33.12 lakh electors were served notices. The notices were issued after all these electors had submitted their filled enumeration forms during the enumeration phase. Of the total cases, 13.79 lakh were classified as “unmapped” and 19.33 lakh were flagged for anomalies. The latter included 19.1 lakh cases described as “logical discrepancies”.
According to the CEO’s office, logical discrepancies do not necessarily mean that an elector failed to establish a link with the previous roll. The cases include electors who had mapped themselves but whose names, ages, parentage or other demographic details were found to be inconsistent when matched against the 2002 base roll. These discrepancies triggered notices for further verification.
The election authorities said the verification process is being carried out through 13 District Election Officers, 70 Electoral Registration Officers, 902 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and 14,947 BLOs, under the supervision of the Delhi CEO and the Election Commission of India. The CEO’s office also said the exercise is being audited by 33,226 Booth Level Agents appointed by six recognised national parties.
The agents are associated with Electoral Registration Officers at different stages, and the authorities said activities are being shared with them at both Assembly Constituency and booth levels. The arrangement places the administrative burden of resolving discrepancies on a large field network, while Electoral Registration Officers retain the final authority over preparation of the roll and decisions on claims and objections.
The Election Commission had stated on September 26 that electors issued notices would generally not be required to attend hearings. Instead, BLOs would collect documents from their homes, except in special cases where Electoral Registration Officers decide that a hearing is necessary. The process is intended to reduce the need for electors to navigate election offices while documents are being gathered and assessed.
The latest figures come amid continuing scrutiny of the revision process, including questions over the distribution of flagged cases across communities. Reporting cited in the supplied material said Muslims, who account for 13.6% of electors on Delhi’s draft roll, represented 20.3% of those flagged for logical discrepancies and 30% of those flagged under five reasons indicative of family size. The CEO’s latest statement did not provide a community-wise breakdown of the 26 lakh resolved cases.
The authorities have not announced in the supplied statement when the remaining cases will be fully disposed of. The immediate next step is continued document collection by BLOs and assessment by Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers before the electoral roll revision is completed.
