Lucknow |The Election Commission has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections under the Special Intensive Revision, SIR, of the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh. Voters can now submit their claims and objections until March 6, while hearings on notices will continue until March 27. The final voter list is scheduled to be published on April 10.
Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said the extension was granted to ensure transparency and give voters adequate opportunity to verify their details ahead of the ongoing Assembly election preparations. He clarified that the entire process is being carried out in a time bound and transparent manner.
According to officials, the draft electoral roll was published on February 27. Notices were issued to nearly nine percent of voters whose verification was required. So far, hearings have been completed for a large number of these cases, while the remaining hearings will conclude by March 27.
Rinwa stated that names will not be removed from the voter list without due process. Any deletion will only take place after proper verification and hearings. If a complaint is found to be baseless, no further action will be taken. The Election Commission has instructed Booth Level Officers not to remove names arbitrarily.
Officials also clarified that a voter can raise objections only within the same Assembly constituency. Each voter is allowed to submit only one form with supporting documents. Political parties have submitted a large number of Booth Level Agent forms, with Form 10 submissions crossing 5.79 lakh.
As of now, more than 9.50 lakh voters have submitted Form 8 for correction of details such as name and address. On February 5 alone, a record 59,840 Form 8 applications were received.
Door to door verification is also underway. Notices are being delivered to around 3.26 crore voters, including approximately 2.22 crore migrated voters. Booth Level Officers are visiting households to verify details and resolve cases through document verification.
The Election Commission has also increased the number of Assistant Electoral Registration Officers to speed up hearings. The total number of AEROs has now risen to 8,990 from 6,948 earlier.
Officials added that 1.04 crore voters who were not part of the 2003 electoral roll and 2.22 crore migrated voters are currently under verification. Notices have already reached over 86.27 lakh households, and hearings for more than 30.30 lakh cases have been completed.
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