CHENNAI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday said enumeration forms have been distributed to over 5 crore voters – of the 6.41 crore electors in Tamil Nadu – for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
A bulletin on the status of distribution of enumeration forms till 3 pm on Wednesday said that as on October 27, when the ECI notified the SIR, the total number of voters in TN stood at 6,41,14,587. There were 68,467 booth-level officers (BLOs) and 2,11,445 booth-level agents (BLAs).
Of the 6.41 crore voters, enumeration forms have been issued to 5,00,67,045 voters, which is 78.09% of the total electorate in the state.
An official said there is no deadline for issuing enumeration forms. They can be issued on the last day of the enumeration – December 4 – and could be returned after filling it on the same day. Since shifted voters are a big issue during enumeration, the distribution of forms may touch 95% in urban areas and 98% in rural areas, the official added.
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik, in a press release, said the ECI has issued revised instructions regarding the appointment of BLAs.
Generally, a BLA is a voter whose name is registered in a specific part of the electoral roll corresponding to that booth. Now, in cases where no eligible voter from that particular part of the electoral roll is available to act as a BLA, any voter whose name is registered within the same assembly constituency may be appointed as a BLA.
“The appointed BLA shall undertake a verification of the draft electoral roll for the part assigned to them, to identify entries about deceased or migrated voters,” the CEO said.
When asked about the ECI’s announcement that over 78% of the enumeration forms have been distributed during the past nine days, DMK organisation secretary R S Bharathi told TNIE that it seems the ECI has expedited the distribution after the DMK moved the Supreme Court regarding the SIR. During the first few days, the distribution was slow.
“But there is no issue in the distribution of enumeration forms. The big task is that the voters should fill out these forms without any confusion. Let’s see what happens in the coming days,” Bharathi added.