Uttarakhand SIR: Over 95,000 voters marked ineligible after Form 7 applications
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Dehradun: More than 95,000, or over half, of the nearly 1.73 lakh Form 7 applications filed during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttarakhand relate to voters marked as “ineligible”, the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office said on Thursday.
According to the CEO’s office, the “ineligible” category includes voters who either failed to submit the documents sought during the verification process or did not appear for the hearing themselves or through a family member.
In such cases, the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) marks the voter as “ineligible” on the Election Commission’s online system. A Form 7 is then automatically generated for deletion of the voter’s name from the electoral roll, the office said in a statement.
Form 7 is used to seek deletion of a name from the electoral roll.
The clarification comes as the Election Commission processes an unusually high number of Form 7 applications in Uttarakhand. More than 85 per cent of the 1,30,382 applications reported earlier came from four districts — Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital.
The concentration of deletion requests in these largely plain and more populous districts had raised questions about the reasons behind the geographic pattern.
The Indian Express had earlier reported that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attributed the concentration primarily to population movement and migration, while the Congress questioned whether the demographic composition of these districts could be a factor.
Election officials, however, have cautioned against drawing conclusions solely from the number of applications, noting that Form 7 figures represent applications received and can vary depending on how actively electoral rolls are scrutinised.
The CEO’s office said the SIR exercise is being conducted “in accordance with the rules and in a transparent manner”. It also said regular meetings are being held with recognised political parties at the Assembly constituency, district and state levels.
The final electoral roll in Uttarakhand will be published on October 3, the CEO’s office said, reiterating the revised schedule for the exercise.
Importantly, voters placed in the “ineligible” category will not lose the opportunity to seek inclusion in the electoral roll after the final publication, according to the clarification.
Such voters can submit Form 6 along with the prescribed documents even after the deadline and seek inclusion in the electoral roll before the election, the CEO’s office said.
