Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, Arvind Kejriwal among 3.16 mn voters issued notices for SIR ‘discrepancies’

Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal were among more than 3.16 million voters, or roughly a third of all electors in the city, served notices for “discrepancies” after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the national capital, said officials involved in the exercise.

The office of the Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) late on Friday published the list of electors served notices, nearly three weeks after the draft electoral roll of voters in the city was released on August 31. Flagged voters must now submit their responses and documentation with election authorities to be included in the final roll.

Delhi SIR

Electors on the lists are categorised within two sections: “no mapping” – voters who could not be linked with the electoral roll of the previous revision, in 2002; and “logical discrepancies” – voters whose entries had inconsistencies with the previous roll.

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Of the 9,753,577 million electors whose names were published in Delhi’s draft electoral rolls after the SIR, 1,379,785 have now been placed in the “no mapping” category and 1,933,134 were tagged as bearing “logical discrepancies”.

To be sure, the two categories account for 3,312,919 electors, though the latest figure released by the election authorities puts the number of notices generated so far at 3,163,930. Officials said this gap is because thousands more notices are still to be generated.

Voters served notices must submit their replies and the documents required to the electoral registration officer.

The election commission must decide on all notices by October 29, and the Capital’s final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4.

The draft rolls for the national capital published on August 31 shaved off a third of voters, listing 9.75 million names, a drop from 14.5 million as of the June 30 roll.

Among the six metro cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad – Delhi’s 32.8% deletions at the draft stage are the second lowest.

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Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal served notices

Gupta, an elector in Shalimar Bagh assembly constituency, was flagged under the “logical discrepancies” category on the basis of details in her enumeration form. The discrepancy concerned the age difference between her and her parents.

The Shalimar Bagh ERO on Saturday said Gupta’s entry had since been verified. A notice was issued to her and the designated booth level officer (BLO) carried out a physical field verification. After the facts and documents she provided were verified, the entry was validated and “parked for inclusion” in the final electoral roll, the ERO said in a statement.

Authorities also issued notices to Kejriwal, his wife Sunita Kejriwal, his parents Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi, and his son Pulkit Kejriwal, because their details could not be mapped with the last SIR. The family is registered in New Delhi constituency.

The segment’s ERO in a statement said Kejriwal and his family will be validated and included in the November 4 roll pursuant to the “due verification of facts and documents to be provided by the electors.”

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AAP vs BJP

AAP spokesperson Anurag Dhanda criticised the notices issued to the party chief and his family.

“Arvind Kejriwal is a three-time chief minister of Delhi and his family has been living here for years. If their names are missing from the voter list, the Election Commission must explain how this happened and who is responsible for it,” he said.

The BJP lashed back at the former chief minister.

“Kejriwal spent the last few months instigating students against the centre government. Had he spent some time in filling the SIR form correctly, he wouldn’t have to go through the process of submission of his documents,” said a BJP spokesperson.

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal and Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Bansuri Swaraj is among those served notices in the non-mapping section.

Former Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva, his wife and brother have received notices over discrepancies in their names.

Election authorities said names of members of the judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields including arts, culture, journalism, sports and public services who had earlier been flagged in the electoral database remain on the draft electoral roll.

Election Commission’s May 14 instructions

The move follows the Election Commission’s May 14 instructions that such names be included in the draft roll so that the necessary documents could be collected during the claims and objections period.

The number of polling stations in Delhi has increased from 13,033 to 14,947 following rationalisation across all 70 assembly constituencies, and election authorities have uploaded the lists for all 14,947 polling stations. The revision was carried out by 13,033 BLOs across 13,033 polling stations.

Electors who could not submit their enumeration forms during the June 30–August 17 window can seek inclusion during the claims and objections period, which opened on August 31 and runs until September 30. They can file Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration.

The process also allows voters to correct their particulars, and citizens and political parties to challenge wrongful inclusions. Form 7 is for objections or deletion, and Form 8 for shifting of residence and corrections in particulars.

Delhi chief electoral officer Ashok Kumar said at a press conference on Saturday: “During the enumeration phase, SIR dates were revised since there was pendency. We will review the status next week and take a decision on whether dates need to be extended.”