Delhi SIR: Prominent Voters Who Received Notices Cleared After Verification

The details of most of the prominent voters who received notices as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Delhi have been validated through field verification and their names reserved for inclusion in the final electoral roll, poll officials said on Thursday.

BJP stalwart LK Advani, former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and several other prominent figures from across various fields, were issued notices over 'discrepancies' in their enumeration forms.

Most of them were issued notices for being "unmapped with last SIR" in Delhi in 2002. Most such prominent persons were voters in New Delhi Assembly constituency.

In past few days, teams of poll officials including booth-level officers (BLOs) visited such voters to validate their details through the supporting documents stipulated by the Election Commission (EC), officials said.

After verification, names of such voters were reserved for inclusion in the final electoral rolls of Delhi to be published on November 4, they said.

According to the EC's instructions, names of members of judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields of arts, culture, journalism, sports, and public services among others -- flagged in the electoral database -- were issued notices after their names did not figure in the draft roll published on August 31.

It was done so that necessary documents can be collected from them during the claims and objection phase, officials said.

More than 97 lakh electors figure in the draft electoral roll, while some 33.13 lakh electors have been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms.

A large number of the cases relate to voters whose details could not be matched with the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR in 2002.

The office of the Delhi chief electoral officer has maintained that issuance of a notice does not mean that a voter's name will be deleted from the electoral roll. No name can be deleted without giving the elector an opportunity of being heard and passing a proper speaking and appealable order, it said. 

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