Odisha’s voter enrolment drive added more than 33,500 names to the electoral rolls between October 7 and 9, including 1,448 electors who had been left out during the state’s special intensive revision (SIR) process. The three-day campaign was conducted across the state on the directions of the Election Commission of India amid concerns over exclusions from the rolls.
Deputy chief electoral officer Laxmi Prasad Sahu said more than 26,000 special camps were organised during the drive. Booth-level officers also carried out door-to-door visits in several areas to identify eligible residents and assist them with applications for inclusion.
“More than 1,400 Form 6 applications received during the campaign were from left-out electors,” Sahu said. Form 6 is used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll. According to official sources cited in the report, most of the 1,448 excluded electors could not be included during the SIR process because they were not present at their registered polling booths when verification was conducted.
The campaign also targeted first-time voters who had turned 18 on or before October 1, 2026. The chief electoral officer’s office said the drive saw strong participation from young electors, with a large number of first-time voters applying for registration. Booth-level agents representing different political parties also supported voter awareness and registration activities at the local level.
The registration process will continue throughout October, even though the special three-day campaign has ended. Eligible citizens whose names are missing from the electoral roll can submit Form 6 through booth-level officers. The CEO’s office has asked voters to verify their names in the electoral rolls and apply for inclusion if they are not listed.
Applications collected during the campaign are being scrutinised by electoral registration officers, assistant electoral registration officers and booth-level officers before eligible applicants are added to the voter list. This review process is intended to check the information submitted by applicants before enrolment is finalised.
The drive follows the publication of Odisha’s final electoral roll on September 21, which placed the state’s electorate at 3.16 crore. More than 17 lakh names were deleted during the SIR exercise. The deletions included around two lakh absent electors, 8.8 lakh voters who had permanently shifted, 8.32 lakh deceased voters, 1.58 lakh duplicate entries and nearly 14,000 cases involving age-related discrepancies.
The continued enrolment window gives residents whose names remain missing an opportunity to seek inclusion, while the scrutiny of applications will determine which names are added to the electoral roll.
