Ahmedabad: The office of Gujarat’s chief electoral officer has received 9.3 lakh requests for deletion from the voter roll, though 73.7 lakh names were already removed after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The state’s voter base dropped by 14% after the initial SIR count, sliding from 5 crore to 4.3 crore as reflected in the draft electoral roll released in Dec.
The 9.3 lakh deletion requests, submitted through Form 7, have spurred a review. The CEO offices across the state are examining each form. Ahmedabad district alone received 2.3 lakh forms for deletion of names from the draft voter list. Moreover, 6.2 lakh voters have applied for fresh entries into the electoral list as their names had been deleted. In some cases, the applicants turned 18 as the draft was being finalized. Also, 4.7 lakh submitted Form 8 for changes in the existing voters’ list, which include change of address, correction of names, or photographs. The chief electoral officer of Gujarat, Hareet Shukla, said, “Receiving the forms does not mean that the names will be deleted.” He said, “Before taking the final decision, the person who has filled the forms for deletion will be called, and the onus to prove the need for deletion will be on that person.” A senior officer involved in voter registration said that in Ahmedabad, 2.3 lakh objections were raised, and some of these were multiple objections filed by individuals, political parties, or booth-level officers. In Ahmedabad, the high number of deletion requests can be attributed to redevelopment and major demolitions in the city. Areas affected by such actions are Rama Pir no Tekro in Vadaj, the Chandola lake area, Bapunagar, and Naranpura. In these redevelopment areas, the Election Commission organized camps, but objections were received citing potential address changes. Another officer said, “In some cases, the names of migrant workers were retained even if the voters had left the area. In some cases, neighbours had attested to the voters’ residency status.” But now objections have been raised to ensure that such voter names are permanently deleted, the officer said. As for requests for addition, the officer said that these are mainly from urban areas where voters did not return the signed forms, assuming that their names would not be deleted. They had to ask to be added to the voter roll after their assumption proved to be wrong.
