After conducting a door-to-door Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Madhya Pradesh for over a month and a half, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to unveil the draft electoral roll for the state on Tuesday. Official sources from the Chief Electoral Office in Madhya Pradesh have indicated that around 41.8 lakh voter names, approximately 7.2% of the electorate, may be removed following the SIR.
Preliminary data reveals that out of the flagged 41.8 lakh names, 8.4 lakh voters were reported deceased, another 8.4 lakh were marked as absent, 22.5 lakh had relocated, and 2.5 lakh were registered at multiple addresses. In Bhopal, with 21.25 lakh registered voters, about 4.3 lakh names, constituting 20.23% of the total, are expected to be excluded from the draft electoral rolls.
Similarly, in Indore, out of 28.67 lakh voters, 4.4 lakh names have been flagged for potential removal. Gwalior and Jabalpur might witness the deletion of 2.5 lakh and 2.4 lakh names, respectively, from their voter lists. However, these figures are provisional, and the exact number of deletions will be confirmed only upon the release of the final electoral draft by the ECI on Tuesday, as per an official statement.
The ECI has extended the deadline for the SIR of electoral rolls in five states and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands until December 11. Over 65,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were assigned the task of verifying voters through door-to-door visits starting from November 4, with over 6.65 crore voters registered in 2023 in Madhya Pradesh.
Madhya Pradesh, with 230 Assembly seats and 29 Lok Sabha constituencies across 55 districts grouped into 10 divisions, including Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Chambal, Narmadapuram, Rewa, Sagar, Shahdol, and Ujjain, witnessed the engagement of more than 65,000 booth-level officers in the verification process. Throughout the SIR exercise, the opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh consistently opposed the ECI’s actions, raising political objections.
Recently, a delegation of state Congress workers visited the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Bhopal on Monday, alleging irregularities in the SIR exercise.
