Nearly 45 lakh voters removed from Andhra draft electoral roll after revision

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday published Andhra Pradesh's draft electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with nearly 45 lakh names removed after the verification exercise.

According to chief electoral officer Vivek Yadav, 44.89 lakh electors were excluded from the draft roll. Of these, 22.30 lakh were found to have permanently shifted residence or were unavailable during verification, 15.22 lakh were identified as deceased and 7.37 lakh were found to be enrolled at more than one location.

The Special Intensive Revision was conducted between 15th June and 24th July. During the exercise, enumeration forms were collected from 3.71 crore electors, representing 89.22 per cent of the state's 4.16 crore registered voters.

The Election Commission said booth level officers (BLOs) were unable to obtain enumeration forms from the remaining electors because they had either enrolled in another state or Union Territory, could not be traced, failed to submit the forms before the deadline or chose not to remain on the electoral roll.

The draft electoral rolls have been published for all 175 assembly constituencies in the state. Lists of voters whose names have been excluded, along with the probable reasons for their deletion, have been displayed at Electoral Registration Officer and assistant electoral registration officer offices, local bodies, polling stations and on the chief electoral officer's website.

The Commission clarified that eligible voters whose names have been omitted can apply for inclusion during the claims and objections period, which runs from 31 July to 30 August, by submitting Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration.

Claims and objections will be examined until 28 September, after which the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on 3 October.

The Election Commission attributed the completion of the exercise to the coordinated efforts of election officials across the state, supported by Booth Level Officers, supervisors and representatives of recognised political parties, whose participation increased significantly during the revision process.

With IANS inputs