CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu CEO Archana Patnaik on Thursday said 1.68 lakh people have applied for inclusion into the electoral rolls till Wednesday, i.e., during the first six days of the claims and objections period of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. There are three more weeks left for the completion of claims and objections period.
The ECI is conducting special camps for ‘claims and objections’ for four days. Meanwhile, CPI State secretary M Veerapandiyan, in a statement, expressed concern over the reported announcement by the Election Commission that it will issue notices seeking explanations from a further 10 lakh voters for allegedly failing to properly fill in the enumeration forms.
Veerapandiyan said it was announced that 97.4 lakh voters had been deleted from the electoral roll when the draft rolls were released after the SIR enumeration phase. It was also announced that, except for those who are deceased, others have the opportunity to apply for re-inclusion in the electoral roll.
The CPI expressed suspicion as to whether letters seeking explanations are being sent with the intention of deleting a further 10 lakh voters. “The Election Commission has announced that it will issue notices seeking explanations from a further 10 lakh voters because they did not properly fill in the enumeration forms provided by it,” Veerapandiyan said.
When asked about this, an official said issuing notice seeking further documents from those who fell under the category ‘unmapped’ is normal, and issuing notice to
10 lakh people is just an assumption. The unmapped category of voters includes those whose details could not be linked to the 2002 or 2005 final electoral rolls. ECI is expected to issue a detailed statement on Friday.