33% Voters Missing? How SIR Exercise May Rejig Delhi Electoral List

Delhi had 1.45 crore electors when the revision began. By August 17, enumeration forms for around 97.5 lakh voters had been digitised. Forms covering another 47.6 lakh electors remained outside the digitised database. It represents 32.82% of Delhi's electorate.

The figure does not mean that 47.6 lakh voters have been permanently deleted. It indicates the number of electors whose forms had not been digitised by the end of the enumeration phase and who could, therefore, be missing from the draft roll.

The draft electoral roll is scheduled to be published on August 24. Voters whose names do not appear will have an opportunity to file claims and objections. The final electoral roll is scheduled for October 27.

South East Delhi Sees Highest Potential Exclusion

The impact of SIR varies sharply across Delhi's districts.

South East Delhi has the highest share of non-digitised forms at 43.68%. New Delhi follows at 39.24%, while South Delhi and Central Delhi record potential exclusion rates of 38.68% and 38.04%, respectively.

Outer North Delhi has the lowest potential exclusion rate among the 13 districts at 24.32%.

The constituency-level data show an even wider gap.

Tughlakabad has the highest potential exclusion rate at 47.86%. In other words, almost half of its electorate could be absent from the draft roll. Okhla follows at 45.33%, while R K Puram and Kasturba Nagar record rates of 44.48% and 44.06%, respectively.

At the other end, Rohini has the highest digitisation rate at 83.43%. Shakur Basti follows at 81.26%. Rajouri Garden, Mangol Puri and Uttam Nagar also recorded digitisation rates above 77%.

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Migration A Key Factor

The large number of non-digitised forms is closely linked to voter mobility.

Around 75% of voters in this category appear to have shifted residence, either within Delhi or outside the national capital. Other cases include electors who could not be contacted or verified during the enumeration process.

This makes Delhi's highly mobile population an important factor in the revision. Workers, students and families who move between addresses can remain registered at their previous locations, creating difficulties during door-to-door verification.

The SIR exercise is intended to identify such discrepancies and update the electoral database.

Why The 32.82% Figure Is Not Final?

The most important distinction is between potential draft exclusions and final deletions.

The 47.6 lakh figure reflects forms that had not been digitised at the end of the enumeration exercise. It does not establish that all those voters are ineligible.

Once the draft roll is published on August 24, affected voters can submit claims and objections until September 23. The Election Commission will then examine these cases before preparing the final roll.

Therefore, the final number of deletions could be considerably lower than the current potential figure.

The scale of the exercise is nevertheless significant. If the current numbers translate into substantial changes after verification, Delhi's electoral profile could look markedly different by the time the final roll is published.

For now, 32.82% remains a draft-stage potential exclusion rate, not the final deletion rate.

The August 24 draft will provide the first clear indication of how many names have actually been left out. The final picture will emerge only on October 27, when the revised electoral roll is published.

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