Delhi SIR notices: S Jaishankar, L K Advani, Rekha Gupta among big names verified on voter rolls

Several prominent voters in Delhi received notices during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, prompting concern for some of them. Poll officials, however, said most of their details have now been verified through field checks and their names have been kept for inclusion in the final electoral roll.

Officials said the exercise covered a number of high-profile voters whose enumeration forms showed discrepancies, PTI reported. Those who received notices included BJP veteran L K Advani, former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and several other well-known personalities from different fields.

According to officials, most of these notices were issued because the voters were marked as "unmapped with last SIR" in Delhi in 2002. Most of these prominent voters are registered in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

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In the past few days, teams of poll officials, including booth-level officers, visited such voters to verify their details using the supporting documents prescribed by the Election Commission, officials said on Thursday. After the verification, their names were kept for inclusion in the final electoral rolls of Delhi, which are scheduled to be published on November 4.

Election Commission instructions say that notices were issued to names flagged in the electoral database after they did not appear in the draft roll published on August 31. These included members of the judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from the fields of arts, culture, journalism, sports and public services, among others. Officials said the purpose was to collect the required documents from them during the claims and objections phase.

More than 97 lakh electors are listed in the draft electoral roll, while around 33.13 lakh electors have been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms. Officials said a large number of these cases relate to voters whose details could not be matched with the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR in 2002.

The office of the Delhi chief electoral officer has said that the issue of a notice does not mean a voter's name will be removed from the electoral roll. It said no name can be deleted without giving the elector an opportunity to be heard and without passing a proper speaking and appealable order. Officials added that, in most cases involving prominent voters who were issued notices, the verification process has now been completed and their names have been kept for inclusion in the final roll.