Draft voter list released after SIR; 97.3 lakh names were removed in Tamil Nadu and 73.7 lakh names in Gujarat.

Draft voter lists of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have been released under Phase-2 of Special Intensive Revision (SIR). According to the Election Commission (ECI), 97.3 lakh voter names have been removed in Tamil Nadu after this process, while 73.7 lakh names have been removed from the voter list in Gujarat. The Commission has clarified that the main reasons for deletion of names are death of voters, migration and registration being found at more than one place.

After the release of the draft list, the total number of voters in Tamil Nadu has reduced from 6.4 crore to 5.4 crore. According to the report, notices are to be issued to about 1.2 crore voters in the state due to ‘logical discrepancy’. Clarification will be sought from voters in these matters.

According to the Election Commission data, among the removed names in Tamil Nadu, 26.9 lakh voters were found to have died. At the same time, 66.4 lakh voters have either shifted to other places or were not found at their addresses during verification. Apart from this, there were about 4 lakh names which were found registered at more than one place, due to which they were removed from the list.

Talking about Gujarat, the number of voters there has decreased from 5.1 crore to 4.3 crore. In Gujarat, 18.1 lakh voters have been confirmed dead, while 51.8 lakh voters were found to have shifted or were absent at the time of verification. Additionally, 3.8 lakh names have been struck off due to enrollment at two or more places.

The Election Commission said that many types of irregularities have come to light in cases of ‘logical discrepancy’. These include more than six offspring linked to a single parent, age difference of less than 15 years or more than 50 years between parents and offspring, age difference of less than 40 years between grandparents and grandchildren, and other similar discrepancies. In such cases, additional verification is being done to ensure the accuracy of the voter list.

The Commission has also clarified that the draft list is not final. Voters themselves or the Booth Level Agent (BLA) of any political party can lodge claims and objections till January 18. The final voter list will be published only after these claims and objections are settled. The Election Commission says that the objective of the SIR exercise is to make the voter list more accurate, transparent and error-free, so that there is no scope for any irregularities in the election process.

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