Delhi SIR: Advani, EAM cleared after verification

In Delhi, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has validated the details of most prominent voters and cleared them for inclusion in the final electoral roll, according to poll officials. LK Advani, a BJP leader, along with former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and numerous others from diverse fields, received notices due to discrepancies in their enumeration forms. Most of these prominent individuals were part of the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

Field verification teams, including booth-level officers, visited these voters in recent days to confirm their details using the requisite documents mandated by the Election Commission (EC). Following this verification, the names of these voters have been reserved for inclusion in the upcoming final electoral roll, set to be published on November 4.

The Election Commission's instructions stipulate that notices were issued for flagged names in the electoral database as the necessary documents from them were to be collected during the claims and objection phase.

Over 97 lakh electors are currently in the draft electoral roll, while around 33.13 lakh electors have been identified for notices due to discrepancies. Many of these cases involve voters whose details could not be matched with the electoral roll prepared in the previous SIR held in 2002. The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer's office has clarified that receiving a notice does not imply the deletion of a voter's name from the roll.

No name can be removed without providing the elector an opportunity to be heard and passing a valid speaking and appealable order.