Gandhinagar, Feb 17 (IANS) The Election Commission, on Tuesday, published Gujarat’s final electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), recording 4.40 crore voters with a net addition of 5.6 lakh voters since the draft electoral roll stage.
The SIR commenced across the state on October 27 last year.
The SIR continued for more than three-and-a-half months and included the distribution and collection of enumeration forms, verification of entries, and disposal of claims and objections.
Objections and applications for inclusion or deletion of names of voters were received between December 19 and January 30.
These were verified and decided by February 10 before publication of the final electoral roll.
Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer Hareet Shukla said the SIR process was completed within the prescribed timeframe through coordinated efforts at various administrative levels.
A total of 34 District Election Officers, 182 Electoral Registration Officers, 855 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and 50,963 Booth Level Officers were involved in the SIR exercise, along with volunteers.
In absolute terms, the final electoral roll comprises 4,40,30,725 voters, reflecting a net addition of 5,60,566 voters after the draft electoral roll stage.
Prior to publication of the draft electoral roll, the state had 5,08,43,436 registered voters.
Following the field verification in Gujarat, the draft electoral roll contained 4,34,70,109 names of voters.
After the examination of claims and objections regarding the SIR, the final voter tally rose to 4,40,30,725, marking a net increase of 1.29 per cent over the draft electoral roll.
The Booth Level Officers conducted door-to-door surveys to distribute and collect enumeration forms, which were later digitised.
During verification, entries of deceased voters, those who had permanently shifted, and individuals registered at multiple locations were identified.
Meetings were also held between Booth Level Officers and booth-level agents of political parties to review cases where enumeration forms had not been returned.
Updated photographs collected during the SIR will be incorporated in the next electoral roll.
District-wise figures showed Ahmedabad recording the highest number of voter additions at 1,53,234, followed by Surat with 1,01,578 and Rajkot with 53,517.
Vadodara and Bhavnagar reported 47,070 and 40,074 voter additions respectively, while Dang (4,423), Narmada (5,797) and Tapi (6,269) registered the lowest voter additions.
In terms of deletions of voters’ names, Surat reported 85,734, followed by Ahmedabad with 47,627 and Surendranagar with 21,415.
Banaskantha recorded 21,710 deletions of voters’ names and Rajkot with 20,096. Surendranagar was the only district to post a marginal net decline of 99 voters.
–IANS
mys/khz
