Delhi poll officials have said most of the nearly five lakh Form 6 applications seeking voter enrolment will be cleared and included in the final electoral roll, as the October 30 deadline for filing claims and objections approaches. The assurance comes after 47.56 lakh electors were excluded from the draft rolls published on August 31.
According to the daily report released by the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, the city received 2,75,856 Form 6 applications between August 31 and October 28. A further 2,12,400 applications had been filed up to August 30, taking the total number of applications seeking inclusion to 4,88,256.
“The majority of the Form 6 applications that have been filed will be cleared, and the names will be added to the final electoral roll,” an official said. The official added that names had mainly been removed when voters were found to be enrolled in another state.
The figures show that applications have been concentrated in several large electoral districts. West Delhi recorded the highest number, with 33,915 Form 6 applications, followed by north-west Delhi with 27,664, east Delhi with 26,563, south-east Delhi with 26,535 and north-east Delhi with 26,324.
Form 6 is used by eligible voters seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls. Form 7 is used to request deletion of names, while Form 8 allows voters to seek corrections or modifications to existing entries. Between August 31 and October 28, Delhi received 21,603 Form 7 applications and 1,03,352 Form 8 applications, according to the Chief Electoral Officer’s report.
The claims and objections process began after the draft electoral roll for all 70 Assembly constituencies was published on August 31. The scale of the applications reflects the administrative workload involved in checking new enrolment requests, deletions and corrections before the final roll is issued.
There was no formal announcement on extending the October 30 deadline, despite the Supreme Court asking the Election Commission to consider an extension. The poll panel had orally assured the court that it would consider the issue. The final electoral roll will determine which applications are accepted and which names are included after scrutiny by the election authorities.
