The Election Commission of India has directed a special enrollment drive across 20 states and Union Territories to re-enroll eligible voters omitted during the recent Special Intensive Revision. Booth Level Officers will conduct house-to-house verifications to restore genuine names and register new electors. This move follows significant criticism regarding the scale of deletions from the electoral rolls.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a directive to conduct a special enrollment drive to rectify gaps in the electoral rolls. Following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, the Commission has mobilized state-level election machinery to identify and re-enroll eligible citizens who were inadvertently omitted from the rolls. This administrative order, communicated to Chief Electoral Officers, covers 20 states and Union Territories where the revision process has concluded.
Field Verification and Process Changes
To ensure accuracy, the ECI has instructed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to undertake house-to-house verification. These officers are tasked with comparing the electoral rolls from before the SIR process with the current versions to identify genuine voters who may have been purged in error. As part of this corrective measure, the ECI has removed the additional SIR-linked declaration requirement from the online Form 6. The application process will now revert to the standard statutory format prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
This initiative follows a period of intense scrutiny regarding the methodology employed during the SIR, which resulted in the removal of approximately 13 crore names from draft rolls nationwide. The Commission aims to finalize the list of verified voters through this targeted exercise while also encouraging new, first-time, and young electors to register.
Administrative and Political Context
This directive comes amid reports of internal disagreements within the Election Commission. Some Commissioners have raised concerns regarding the procedural changes and the methodology used during the SIR, leading to friction within the poll body. Additionally, the move serves as a response to widespread political criticism regarding the transparency and scale of voter deletions, with opposition blocks alleging bias in the process.
For readers, it is important to note that this is a government policy and administrative directive regarding electoral infrastructure. It is not a corporate event and does not involve any listed companies, stock market activity, or financial instruments. The key monitoring point for citizens and stakeholders will be the effectiveness of the 30-day house-to-house verification drive and whether the process successfully addresses the reported discrepancies in voter lists before upcoming electoral cycles.