Lucknow: The Election Commission has completed hearings for 3.26 crore voters in Uttar Pradesh under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign, claiming that action has been taken on 100 per cent of the notices issued during the process.
Final roll on April 10; over 13.25 crore voters expected
Officials said the final electoral roll will be published on April 10 and is expected to include more than 13.25 crore voters. The previous voter list had around 12.55 crore names. During the SIR exercise, over one crore entries were flagged due to mismatch with the 2003 voter list, while more than two crore names were found to have logical discrepancies.
According to the Commission, special arrangements were made to make the SIR process voter friendly. Hearings related to document verification notices were conducted near the residences of voters. In as many as 2.22 crore cases, Booth Level Officers carried out door to door verification.
86.69 lakh applications for addition, 3.18 lakh for deletion
The drive also saw a large number of applications for inclusion and deletion of names. A total of 86.69 lakh applications were received for adding new voters, while 3.18 lakh requests were filed for deletion. Officials said that more than 97 per cent of the names are likely to remain on the final list.
The Chief Electoral Officer has clarified that no voter’s name will be removed without due process and proper hearing. The entire exercise, officials said, has been conducted in a transparent manner. The objective of the SIR campaign is to ensure a clean, accurate and updated electoral roll by removing duplicate, deceased, shifted or ineligible voters and adding eligible new voters.
The exercise, however, has drawn criticism from political parties, particularly those in the opposition, which have alleged that the process is being used to deliberately remove names of their supporters. With the publication of the final list approaching, attention is now focused on the outcome, which could trigger fresh claims and objections.
