A further 72,601 remain out pending documents or scrutiny. The poll body also received 2.36 million applications for enrolment, deletion and corrections.
Of the 12.24 million voters served notices for anomalies in the electoral rolls or were unmapped to the 2002 records, 99.41% or 12.20 million voters have been re-admitted to the rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process still underway in Maharashtra. Only 72,601 of these voters have been left out as they are yet to submit documents or their documents are under scrutiny.
Apart from 12.24 million voters whose inclusion was in question after the SIR got underway in June, 20.60 million were dropped from the 97.8 million voters on the electoral rolls. While 6.25 million were flagged for anomalies, or errors and discrepancies in their names, age, address etc, another 5.98 million were unmapped to the 2002 records. The latter have been asked to submit documents to prove their nationality.
The large number of electors re-admitted to the rolls comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) relaxed the guidelines for the SIR underway in Maharashtra and other states. The guidelines were relaxed after controversy broke out over the manner in which decisions were being taken in the apex poll body, triggering widespread protests across the country.
Relaxed Guidelines and Document Submission
Under the relaxed guidelines, personal hearings with BLOs were scrapped and documents could be submitted on WhatsApp. The list of documents too was widened from the original 12, allowing voters to submit their PAN and Aadhar details, which had been disallowed.
Election officers at the assembly constituency level said that after the nationwide protests, BLOs were instructed to adopt a lenient approach and were even allowed to use their discretion in deciding whether or not to seek further details from voters in their jurisdiction.