The Election Commission on Friday extended the deadline to March 6 for voters to file their claims and objections as part of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, the period for filing objections, which began on January 6 when the draft roll was published, was to conclude on Friday.
The extension “gives voters another month to submit Form 6 for the inclusion of their names, Form 7 for deletion and Form 8 for corrections”, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa told reporters.
The deadline for hearings and verification was extended to March 27 from February 27.
The final electoral roll of Uttar Pradesh will be published on April 10 instead of March 6, as per the revised timeline.
The changes announced by the poll panel on Friday came following a request from the state’s chief electoral officer. This was the fourth extension of the deadlines in the state.
Uttar Pradesh is among the 12 states and Union Territories where the Election Commission is conducting the special intensive revision of the voter rolls. The exercise had begun on October 27.
After the enumeration phase completed, the draft roll for Uttar Pradesh was published on January 6.
The draft roll showed that the names of 2.8 crore voters had been removed. This included 2.1 crore persons who had shifted from their registered residences, 46.2 lakh voters who had died and 25.4 lakh duplicate entries.
The names of 12.5 crore voters out of the total 15.4 crore electors had been retained in the draft roll after the revision.
This was the largest number of deletions to have been reported among the 12 states and Union Territories where the exercise is being conducted. Tamil Nadu, with 97.3 lakh deletions, was at second spot and Gujarat, where 73.7 names were removed, was at third, as per the states’ draft rolls published in December.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners had moved the Supreme Court against it.
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