Delhi SIR documents differ on categorisation of voters left out

Among the documents published by the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Monday, two — the minutes of a meeting between Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and booth-level agents (BLAs), and a media statement — placed 47.56 lakh voters whose names had been left out of the draft roll in five categories: ‘absent’, ‘shifted’, ‘dead’, ‘duplicate’ and ‘others’.

A third document – ASDD list - also published on Monday and containing details of the voters left out for the citizens to check “the reasons for the names left out”, however, classified them under only four categories: ‘permanently shifted’, ‘untraceable/absent’, ‘dead’ and ‘already enrolled’. These are the enumeration forms (EFs), which as per the Delhi CEO, were uncollectable/did not return to the BLO. The reasons were to be shared as per EC rules.

The discrepancy is significant because official documents — including the detailed list of uncollectable forms with the reasons, shared with political parties, as part of the minutes — and an earlier press statement from the CEO’s office identify ‘others’ as a category comprising electors who did not submit or refused to submit their enumeration forms EFs and who were marked as ‘EF refused’. According to a senior official, around 2.5 lakh such voters were identified during the enumeration phase. However, in the press statement shared on Monday, the office of Delhi CEO put combined figures for voter names removed as “absent/shifted/others” at 43.32 lakh.

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An analysis of the ASDD list of names removed from all 14,947 polling booths by The Hindu found no separate category for ‘EF refused’. Instead, all names were categorized in four categories, including the ones who refused the EF, contradicting other official records. This is even as the lists shared with the political parties, which are not machine readable but scanned documents, after completion of enumeration phase mentions names under the fifth category – the others for “EF refused”, raising questions over how the reasons were changed for such voters in the final ASDD list — marking them either absent/untraceable or shifted.

As per rules, an elector is marked “absent” or “shifted” if verified to have shifted to a different state/UT or not present at the registered EPIC address during door-to-door verification visits by the area BLO. The officer is required to visit at least three times and paste a notice incase of absent voters. Importantly, BLO could only make changes in the voter’s EF status and the reasons for uncollected forms during the enumeration phase on the BLO app and the draft roll is only compiled after all EF data, including uncollectable is shared with political party appointed BLAs.

Also Read: Delhi SIR: Public audit in two booths finds over 100 voters wrongly marked absent, shifted, or dead

For instance, in Tughlaqabad Extension part of Sangam Vihar constituency, 15 electors were recorded as ‘EF refused’ in the list shared with the political parties in the minutes of the meeting dated August 17, the last day of the enumeration phase, beyond which no changes were allowed. The minutes were signed by BLOs and BLAs of the BJP and AAP.

In Monday’s ASDD list, however, one of these 15 electors was categorised as ‘shifted’, while the remaining 14 were shown as ‘untraceable/absent’. Similar contradictions were found in other records in manual comparison of the list shared with minutes undersigned by the area BLO and BLAs and the final ASDD list published.

In New Delhi’s five parts of Mandir Marg, reasons for 56 voter names and in Basant Lane part for 87 voters not included in the draft roll is mentioned ‘EF refused’ in the list compiled after compeltion of enumeration phase, per the minutes of meetings. For the same voters name, in the ASDD list published, it’s either absent or shifted. The examples go on, as not a single voter name is recorded in the final list of excluded voters for the ‘EF refused’ reason.

When reached for comment on how these changes were made, marking voters’ names who earlier ‘refused EF’ under absent/shifted after deadline for verification was over, the CEO’s office did not respond. The office has also refused to share constituency wise details of reasons for draft stage deletion, or individual breakup of total figures under the categories listed by them.

As per The Hindu’s analysis, a total of 31.59 lakh voters is marked “permanently shifted”, and 11.73 lakh as “untraceable/absent”. Another 2.82 lakh as “deceased” while 1.41 lakh as “already enrolled.”