66% names dropped from Delhi draft roll marked ‘shifted’

More than six in every 10 names left out of Delhi’s draft roll published on Monday are marked ‘permanently shifted’ and account for the largest share of the 47.56 lakh exclusions in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) drive.

Of the entries removed at the draft stage, 31.59 lakh are marked ‘permanently shifted’, 11.73 lakh ‘untraceable/absent’, 2.82 lakh ‘dead’ and 1.41 lakh ‘duplicate’ or ‘already enrolled’. Over 10 lakh of those marked ‘permanently shifted’ are aged 30-39.

The excluded entries have been placed in four categories — ‘absent’, ‘shifted’, ‘dead’ and ‘duplicate’ (ASDD). Analysis of the list of ASDD voters across all 14,947 polling booths, uploaded on the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) website, shows that in at least one booth in each of the 70 Assembly constituencies, over 95% of the names were placed in one of the four categories.

In 1,042 of the 1,090 booths where at least 95% of the removals were attributed to a single reason, ‘permanently shifted’ was the reason. These 1,042 booths together account for nearly 4.5 lakh deletions, of which 4.37 lakh were classified as ‘permanently shifted’. Most of these booths — where at least 95% of the excluded names are marked ‘permanently shifted’ — are in South East (216) and South (204) districts, with North East at the third spot (147).

Most such booths are in Deoli, Tughlaqabad, Okhla, Karawal Nagar, Kasturba Nagar and Mustafabad.

Single-reason pattern

Nearly half of the 1,090 booths with such a highly concentrated single-reason pattern were located near another booth with the same pattern.

In two polling booths in Shyam Nagar under the Rajouri Garden constituency, all 617 removed names were marked as ‘absent/ untraceable’.

Of 2.82 lakh entries marked ‘dead’, 22,918 electors are below 40 years of age. Among electors aged 85 and above who were subjected to additional verification during enumeration, around 49,700 (54.9%) are on the ASDD list. Of these, the majority are marked as permanently shifted or absent.

The exclusions can be challenged during the claims and objections period, which ends on September 30.

Delhi CEO Ashok Kumar on Monday said voters whose names are missing can submit Form 6 for inclusion. He said no name will be removed from the final roll without proper inquiry and notice.

Booth-level agents can assist electors in filing claims, subject to a limit of 40 forms per agent, an official said, adding that special camps will be organised for the process.

A senior poll official said their office expects around half of those marked as permanently shifted to be restored to the rolls during the claims and objections process.