Bogus voters removed,Delhi EC set to publish pruned list on July 1

After pruning the list of bogus voters,in a first of its kind exercise undertaken in the history of Delhi elections,the State Election Commission (EC) is all set to publish its draft electoral roll on July 1.

With another set of summary revision before the elections,the EC will work on the deflated parts of the roll — which include women and youth voters — and publish the final version on September 2. An official announcement in this regard will be made by the EC on Friday.

Sources in the Election Commission said of the 12 lakh “bogus” voters to be deleted in the category of “shifted,expired and duplicate”,there is only a small chance that people who have “shifted” will re-apply,and “many of them would have most likely already got new voter cards in case they have shifted within the city”.

In the “multiple” voter category,the number has drastically come down from nearly 8 lakh to roughly 5 lakh now. “Many voters had invalid numbers on their cards,and several others had the same numbers on their cards. All those mistakes have been rectified and now every voter has a unique EPIC number,” a senior official said.

In line with the unique EPIC number for voters in Delhi,the Delhi EC has also decided to launch a mobile SMS service,which will enable voters to get details of their electoral roll on their phones.

Another 7.70 lakh voters had no photographs on their EPICs,a number that officials say was the highest in Delhi. Officials said having no photographs on EPIC allows political parties to manipulate votes.

“The Election Commission of India has mandated that there should be zero per cent non-image voters; Delhi had the highest number – 6 per cent. The number has already come down to 2.70 lakh,and there will be no non-image voters till the next summary revision,” an official said.

Poll preparations

For the first time in history of Delhi elections,EC conducted drive to prune inflated electoral roll

n Inflated list has: 1.23 crore

n Normative Census average: 1.15 crore

n Deleted: 12 lakh Households with over 20 voters

n Deleted: 3 lakh Voters with no photographs

n Before deletion: 7.70 lakh

n After deletion: 2.70 lakh Multiple voters’ category

n Before deletion: 8 lakh

n After deletion: 5 lakh

n Another revision of deflated roll — including women and youth — to be done

n Final version on September 2