In a massive clean-up exercise, the office of Chhattisgarh's Chief Electoral Officer has identified a staggering 27.34 lakh voter names for potential removal from the state's electoral rolls. The revised draft, published on Tuesday, follows the first phase of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, marking one of the largest such purges in the state's history.
The Scale of the Clean-Up
The door-to-door verification process, which spanned 45 days from November 4 to December 18, 2025, covered a total of 2.12 crore electors across all 33 districts. Booth Level Officers (BLOs), assisted by over 30,000 volunteers and political party representatives, conducted the enumeration. The findings revealed that nearly one in every ten registered voters could not be traced at their listed addresses.
Chief Electoral Officer Yashwant Kumar released data showing that 19.13 lakh electors were marked as 'shifted or absent'. Out of the total electorate, a significant 1.84 crore voters (87%) submitted their enumeration forms during the drive. The combined categories of missing, shifted, or untraceable voters led to the 27.34 lakh names being flagged for correction or deletion—the highest number in any revision in the past decade.
Process and Public Participation
Officials have emphasized that no name will be deleted automatically. Each flagged voter will receive a formal notice. Removal from the list will only occur after proper verification and a written order from the Electoral Registration Officer, as required by law. Despite the large-scale flagging, the exercise witnessed robust public engagement, with the 87% form submission rate being among the highest in recent years.
Election authorities attribute the high numbers to 'extraordinary voter mobility' driven by migration, employment changes, and rapid urbanisation, rather than mere errors in the rolls. Early district-wise reports indicate the highest concentrations of 'shifted/absent' voters are in urbanising hubs like Raipur, Durg, Korba, and Bilaspur, as well as in mining belts and tribal districts with high seasonal migration.
Next Steps for Voters
The Election Commission has made the draft rolls available for public scrutiny. Voters can check their status through multiple channels:
- Local Booth Level Officers (BLOs)
- The ECINET mobile application
- The official election commission website: https://election.cg.gov.in/ASDList/
A claims-and-objections window is open from December 23, 2025, to January 22, 2026. Voters whose names are missing can apply for inclusion using Form-6. Corrections or objections can be filed using Forms-7 and 8. Hearings and verifications will continue until February 14, 2026, with the final electoral roll scheduled for publication on February 21, 2026.
With nearly 10% of the electorate flagged, the coming month is expected to be politically charged. Political parties are preparing to scrutinize booth-wise lists of flagged voters to prevent any wrongful exclusions ahead of future elections.
