Phase 2 of voter roll revision: Enumeration forms distributed to nearly 73% of electors, says EC

The Election Commission on Wednesday said that enumeration forms as part of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories have been distributed to nearly 73% of the voters.

The second phase of the voter roll revision is being held in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The first phase was held in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections there.

In the second phase, the house-to-house enumeration process began on November 4 and will conclude on December 4. The draft electoral rolls for the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9.

Voters can file claims and objections from December 9 to January 8, while hearings and verifications will take place from December 9 to January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

As on October 27, the 12 states and Union Territories had 50.9 crore voters. Enumeration forms have been distributed to 37 crore, or 72.6%, of the electors.

The highest percentage of forms has been distributed in Lakshadweep, where only one voter out of 57,813 has not received the document. In Goa too, enumeration forms have been distributed to 99.9% of the voting population, the Election Commission said.

The lowest percentage (49.5%) of enumeration forms has been distributed in Kerala till now. Kerala has demanded that the process in the state be postponed because of local body elections.

The printing of enumeration forms has been completed in all states except Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the poll panel said.

Bihar voter roll revision

In Bihar, where the first phase of the special intensive revision of voters rolls was conducted, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published by the Election Commission on September 30.

Concerns had been raised that the revision process could disenfranchise many voters.

Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against the exercise. On September 8, the court had directed the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar as a valid identity proof for the exercise in Bihar.

The Aadhaar card was not among the 11 documents that the poll panel had said could be submitted as proof of citizenship. Several petitioners had objected to the exclusion of Aadhaar, the most widely held ID, from the list of permissible documents, calling it “absurd”.