In a significant push to clean up Gujarat's voter database, the state's chief electoral officer has announced substantial progress in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. The drive has brought to light critical discrepancies, including the names of over one million deceased individuals still on the list.
Massive Scale of Voter List Cleanup
The election office in Gandhinagar reported that a remarkable 75% of the enumeration forms, distributed to more than 50 million registered voters across the state, have been successfully returned and digitized. This massive exercise is a core part of the initiative to update and correct Gujarat's voter records, ensuring their accuracy for future elections.
During the distribution and collection process, officials uncovered several alarming issues within the existing rolls. The data showed that the electoral list contained over 1 million deceased voters. Furthermore, the revision identified more than 150,000 voters with incorrect addresses and over 1 million individuals who had permanently relocated from their registered constituencies. The process also flagged approximately 1,44,000 duplicate entries, highlighting the need for a thorough cleanup.
District Performance and Upcoming Camps
Several districts demonstrated exceptional efficiency in this statewide effort. The districts of Tapi, Sabarkantha, Gir Somnath, Mahisagar, Amreli, Botad, and Navsari achieved a perfect 100% distribution rate for the enumeration forms. When it comes to digitizing the returned data, Dang district is leading the charge, having already processed 85.53% of the forms it received.
To ensure no voter is left out, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will organize special camps. These camps are scheduled to be held at the taluka level across all 182 assembly constituencies of Gujarat on November 28 and 29.
Political Concerns and Challenges
In related developments, the Gujarat Congress has approached the ECI with several concerns regarding the revision process. The party raised a serious issue about the deaths of booth level officers (BLOs) who were assigned to these revision duties.
Other challenges highlighted by the Congress include instances where voters received only a single enumeration form and the difficulties faced by tribal voters who have migrated for work. The party has urged the election commission to address these problems promptly to ensure that all eligible voters, including those struggling to find their names due to incomplete data from the 2002 voters list, are not deprived of their right to vote.
