More than 1 lakh names of voters have been dropped as compared to 2017 electoral roll in Delhi. According to a report in DNA, the draft electoral roll, which is available from today, has around 1 lakh 41 thousand names dropped off from the electoral roll of 2017.
The report says, as per data provided by the Chief Election Commissioner of Delhi, the number of male voters is reduced from 76,14,359 in 2017 roll to 75,20,824 in the current draft roll. Likewise, the number of female voters has been reduced from 61,42,143 in 2017 to 60,94,115 in the current roll. The total number of voters dropped since 2017 electoral roll stands at the total of 1,41,766. The election commission has reportedly stated that the drop in the numbers is due to the scrutiny and removal of bogus voters from the electoral roll.
The draft roll has been made available for the public since today. The election commission will take claims and objections regarding inclusion/deletion in the electoral roll till 31st October. The draft roll has been prepared to keep the upcoming general as well as Assembly elections in view. The exercise is a part of the special summary revision for 2019 and its primary objective was to include young voters who would be eligible to vote for the first time in 2019. The draft roll also aims to provide voters with the opportunity to update and correct their particulars and remove the bogus voters’ names to avoid proxy votings.
There has been a long-standing complaint of a large number of bogus voters being present in Delhi’s electoral roll. Several political parties including the BJP and AAP have alleged in the past that there are lakhs of bogus voters in Delhi’s electoral roll. in 2013, the Delhi Election Commission had admitted to a large voter scam and had removed over 12 lakh bogus voters from its electoral roll. At that time it was almost 10% of the total voter population in the national capital. In 2015, the AAP had claimed that there are over 3 lakh bogus voters still registered in Delhi. AAP’s claim was after BJP had alleged that AAP leader Manish Sisodiya had won the assembly election in Pratapganj constituency because of bogus voting. A random comparison of the names and details in the constituency had reportedly revealed that at least 40 bogus voters had voted in each polling booth. The BJP had claimed that there are 15000 to 18000 bogus voters in Pratapganj constituency alone.
Earlier this year, the Congress had claimed that there are thousands of fake voters listed in Madhya Pradesh but the MP election commission had refuted the claim after conducting field verifications. The chief election commissioner in MP had stated that there are no fake or bogus voters listed in the state.
