Maharashtra SIR excludes 2.06 crore electors from draft roll, 1.22 crore under scrutiny

Representation pic/istock

Maharashtra's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has left 2,06,88,487 names out of the draft electoral roll, with four Assembly constituencies - Nalasopara, Kalyan Rural, Khadakwasla and Chinchwad - recording declines of between 40.6 per cent and 50.4 per cent from their pre-SIR voter base.

The state had 9,78,54,049 electors before the revision. The draft roll contains 7,71,65,562, meaning 21.14 per cent of the previous electorate has not been included at this stage.

The workload on BLOs

Shinde also pointed to the workload on Booth Level Officers (BLOs), many of whom have regular government or teaching responsibilities alongside election duties. He said extensive physical verification across a large electorate could increase the possibility of errors where verification is incomplete, or mapping systems have limitations. He said political parties also had a role in booth-level organisation, voter-list verification and voter awareness.

"The process should not be judged simply by how many names have been removed, but by how accurately the system has distinguished between ineligible and eligible voters," Shinde said. He stressed the need for voter education, transparent verification and an accessible mechanism to restore eligible voters to the rolls. "A clean electoral roll is essential, but electoral-roll purification must also ensure that every eligible citizen retains the right to vote."

Field verification raises questions

Amol Shinde, a Pune-based political researcher

Amol Shinde, a Pune-based political researcher and owner of Stratsphere Dynamics, said the SIR was undertaken with the stated aim of cleaning and strengthening electoral rolls, but the scale of the exclusions and challenges at the field level warranted scrutiny. Shinde said he had conducted SIR-related workshops across 12 Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra and observed confusion among voters and political representatives about the process.

He said there had been instances where living voters were reportedly classified as deceased and genuine residents were shown as permanently shifted. He stressed that such individual cases did not by themselves establish systemic failure, but said they highlighted the need for stronger verification.

Khadakwasla throws up a data question

Khadakwasla had 5,76,505 electors before SIR, of whom 2,77,851 were not included in the draft. That leaves 2,98,654 voters in the current figure cited in the analysis. However, the constituency recorded 3,26,667 votes polled in the 2024 Assembly election. That means the 2024 votes polled figure is 28,013 higher than the current voter count cited after SIR.

Why names were not included

Category Voters

Permanently shifted 76,76,135
Absent/untraceable 75,41,229
Deceased 34,82,231
Duplicate/already 17,66,502
enrolled elsewhere
Others 2,22,390
Total 2,06,88,487

The official Maharashtra SIR material describes these as electors whose enumeration forms were not collected.

Another 1.22 crore under scrutiny

The SIR exercise has also flagged 1,22,24,007 voters who are currently in the draft roll for further scrutiny because of mapping-related issues.

62,48,281
Anomaly found

59,75,726
Unmapped

If 2.06 cr electors not included in the draft and the 1.22 cr under scrutiny are considered together, 3,29,12,494 electors fall into these two categories. The analysis classifies another 6,49,41,555 voters as secured.