Why the ‘Rushed’ Voter Record Revision Led to a Disaster in Bengal
IT was on October 27 final 12 months that the Election Fee of India (ECI) introduced the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states/Union Territories. That got here two months after its controversial Bihar SIR ended on September 30.
An inside pink flag was raised inside days.
On November 25, Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Chockalingam wrote to the ballot panel flagging that the timeline prescribed was too tight and sought adequate time to finish the train, The Sunday Specific has discovered.
Maharashtra was not one of many 12 states the place the SIR was introduced however sources stated the CEO’s letter was a part of the suggestions throughout deliberations between the ballot panel and states.
Maharashtra is among the many high three states within the nation by voter base, with over 9 crore electors within the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the second highest within the nation after Uttar Pradesh.
Certainly, the CEO’s letter was prescient given how the SIR course of bumped into hassle in West Bengal, the place roughly 89 lakh names have been deleted from electoral rolls, prompting Supreme Courtroom intervention and an argument that has solid a shadow on elections within the state scheduled for April 23 and 29.
The second part of the SIR started on November 4 in 12 states and UTs, together with poll-bound West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
It took a number of deadline extensions unfold over 5 months to finish the method. In West Bengal, 27.1 lakh voters, whose names have been deleted put up adjudication earlier than judicial officers, shouldn’t have adequate time to enchantment the choice, and now threat dropping their alternative to vote.
Story continues under this advert
That the CEO’s workplace fore-warned the ballot panel was just lately conveyed to a Congress delegation when it met the state CEO just a little over every week in the past.
Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal confirmed this to The Sunday Specific. “One of many calls for raised by us was to take the 2001-02 SIR technique of Maharashtra which lasted for 13 months into consideration whereas enterprise the method now. We had been informed by the officers {that a} letter requesting to not rush with the method has already been made with the ECI,” he stated.
It’s learnt that the letter explicitly sought that “adequate time interval could also be given for stated program, wherever there isn’t a urgency or election is just not imminent.”
The letter pointed to the SIR-2002 carried out in Maharashtra which ran from November 2001 to December 2002, lasting 13 months. Sources informed The Sunday Specific that the 2002 train in Maharashtra couldn’t be accomplished inside its authentic schedule exactly as a result of inadequate time had been given even at the moment for listening to and sorting objections.
Story continues under this advert
“The thought is to not go on deleting names of voters however to revise the listing. For this function, vital time must be given,” an officer stated.
The Maharashtra letter additionally flagged a further exercise not current in SIR 2002: the mapping of electors from present information to the final SIR information, describing it as a “time consuming” train that was not accounted for within the ECI’s pointers.
The SIR 2002 concerned 83 days of preliminary work, together with evaluate of officer postings, appointment and coaching of enumerators and supervisors, printing of varieties and home numbering, earlier than the house-to-house enumeration part started on November 5, 2001.
The draft electoral roll was printed on January 16, 2002. Regardless of a scheduled remaining publication date of March 25, 2002, the train ran on till December 3, 2002 after being rescheduled to permit vital time for listening to and disposal of claims and objections.
Story continues under this advert
The ECI didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched on Friday. Chockalingam declined to touch upon the matter. ECI officers, nevertheless, stated most states, together with Maharashtra, the place the SIR is but to be introduced, had begun mapping present electors with the final intensive revision roll.
In Maharashtra, although, the tempo has been gradual. “As of now, on a median 30-35% work has been accomplished in lots of the districts. The method will acquire tempo in coming days and as soon as the mapping is finished, we are going to start the following course of,” an official informed The Sunday Specific.
Requested particularly about Maharashtra’s concern that the timeline was too tight, significantly given the extra step of mapping all present voters to the 2002 roll, one other ECI official stated the following spherical of SIR was more likely to start solely after the completion of the 5 ongoing Meeting elections on Might 4, giving states adequate time to finish the mapping.
The official additionally famous that the continued house-listing part of the Census, operating from April 1 to September 30, might push the SIR additional, since each workout routines depend on the identical pool of native faculty academics, anganwadi employees and state authorities staff.
Story continues under this advert
The 12 states/UTs the place SIR was introduced on October 27 had been Rajasthan, Goa, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Enumeration was from November 4. The method concluded on April 10 with the publication of the UP remaining roll. A complete of 5.37 crore voter names (or 10.55%) throughout the states/UT had been reduce.
Leave a Reply