Odisha SIR: Nearly 20 Lakh Names Dropped From Draft Voter List

The names of nearly 20 lakh electors were excluded from Odisha’s draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the final voter list published on Monday showing 3.16 crore electors, officials said.

Chief Electoral Officer R S Gopalan said Odisha had 3,33,99,591 electors before the SIR. During the enumeration phase from May 30 to June 28, forms were received from 3,13,87,034 electors, covering 93.97 per cent of the electorate. The remaining 20,12,557 electors were excluded from the draft roll published on July 5.

The exclusions included voters whose forms were not received because they had died, shifted, were absent or had duplicate entries. The draft roll contained 3,13,87,034 electors, including around three crore whose records were mapped either to themselves or their progeny. However, 12.98 lakh electors remained unmapped, prompting the Election Commission to issue verification notices.

Notices were also served on 45.37 lakh electors with logical discrepancies in their entries. Overall, more than 58 lakh notices were issued during the verification process, while 2,55,996 claims and objections were received and processed.

Following verification and hearings, 2,90,497 electors were added to the draft roll, while 44,777 names were deleted. The additions resulted in a net increase of 2,45,720 electors over the draft roll, taking the final electorate to 3,16,32,754.

The final roll comprises 1.61 crore male, 1.55 crore female and 2,774 third-gender electors. The final electorate remains around 17.67 lakh lower than the pre-SIR figure, despite the additions made during the claims and verification process.

Following rationalisation, the number of polling stations increased to 45,250. Officials said electors can continue to seek inclusion, correction or deletion through the prescribed procedures, with provisions for appeals against electoral-registration decisions.