CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Saturday informed its legal wing functionaries across constituencies and districts that over 88.31 lakh names are likely to be dropped and around 57 lakh names (8.89% of digitised enumeration forms) are likely to be marked as “unmapped” in the draft electoral roll to be released as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls that is under way in Tamil Nadu, sources who attended the meeting told TNIE.
The “unmapped” category, according to sources, refers to those voters whose names or the names of their parents could not be mapped with the final electoral rolls prepared after the previous exercise in 2002 or 2005 (for urban areas). Hence, these voters could be asked for additional documentation by the respective Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to prove that they are indeed an ordinary resident of the constituency.
The 88.3 lakh names to be removed included those marked as “Absent”, “Shifted” or “Deceased”, but not “Duplicate” names, which may also be deleted, sources said.
‘Unmapped voters in TN account for 8.9% of digitised enumerations forms’
The figures were shared in a meeting convened by the legal wing of the party to sensitise functionaries to the methodologies to be followed to help voters whose names are removed from the draft roll or those who are asked to submit additional documents to prove their identity.
“Among the submitted forms, around 57 lakh votes are facing the threat of removal if explanations are not properly given during the inquiry phase. This accounts for 8.89% of digitised enumeration forms. We will have to ensure that all these voters have been sent the notice and then help them in establishing their voting rights in front of the authorities concerned,” an advocate who participated in the meeting said.
He added that party has advised them to take the issue as a key priority. The data, which is reportedly based on the information shared by the ECI with the parties, pegs the percentage of enumeration forms distributed at 99.68% and percentage digitised at 96.9%.
With ECI informing on Thursday that both distribution and digitisation is 100% complete in TN, the functionary said that the data shared by the party could be a few days older and therefore the actual number of “unmapped” voters and the number of names likely to be dropped could slightly vary in the official draft roll.
The meeting, which happened at the DMK party headquarters in Chennai, was led by legal wing secretary and MP NR Elango, who spoke in detail about the process and explained how to follow-up on cases of voter deletions in the draft roll.
Party sources said that he urged the advocates to ensure that not a single eligible voter misses the right to vote.
Meanwhile, DMK’s organisation secretary R S Bharathi told media there were reports of over 85 lakh names getting deleted in the draft SIR rolls. However, the actual picture would emerge only when the data is released, he added.
“We have instructed our Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to monitor this, and more than 1,000 advocates have taken part in today’s meeting to discuss the next course of action,” he said.
“While the DMK is keen on ensuring voting rights for the people of Tamil Nadu, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami seems not to be concerned about these things,” Bharathi alleged.