Nearly 8% voter deletions across nine states and UTs post-SIR final rolls
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New Delhi: Final electoral rolls from the special intensive revision (SIR) second phase show net deletions of 1,70,28,514 voters—7.93% of the total—across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep.
Rolls were published Saturday (February 21) for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar, and Chhattisgarh; Gujarat's on February 17; and Puducherry and Lakshadweep's on February 14. The initial elector count stood at 21,45,62,215 when SIR began on October 27.
Gujarat saw the highest state deletions at 13.4%, followed by Chhattisgarh (11.77%), Goa (10.76%), Madhya Pradesh (5.96%), and Rajasthan (5.74%). Kerala had the lowest at 3.22%.
Among UTs, Andaman and Nicobar topped at 16.87%, with Lakshadweep at 0.36% and Puducherry at 7.5%.
Final rolls remain pending for West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu—the other three of 12 SIR regions. Uttar Pradesh's is due April 10 after extensions; Tamil Nadu's on February 23; West Bengal's on February 28 amid court challenges.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered deploying serving and former district judges to aid West Bengal's SIR, citing a "trust deficit." The bench directed the Calcutta High Court chief justice to assign officers for "logical discrepancy" claims, stating: “In order to ensure fairness in the adjudication of the genuineness of the documents and consequential inclusion/exclusion in voters list, and as agreed to by both sides, we are left with hardly any other option but to request the Chief Justice of the Calcutta high court to spare serving judicial officers along with some former judicial officers in the rank of additional district judge and district judge who can then be requested to revisit/dispose of the pending claims under the category of ‘logical discrepancy’.”
