Fresh enumeration forms are expected to be distributed from next week to more than 47.5 lakh voters whose names were excluded from Delhi's draft electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision. The Election Commission is changing its ECINET digital portal to help Booth-Level Officers identify these voters and generate enumeration forms specifically for them.

The exercise will give the excluded voters another opportunity to establish their eligibility."Currently, enumeration forms are generated for all 1.45 crore electors in Delhi, requiring BLOs to manually identify and shortlist those excluded from the draft roll before distributing the forms," an Election Commission official told news agency PTI.Each polling station has about 1,500 electors, of whom around 200 to 300 fall under the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate, or ASDD, category, the official said. The proposed changes will allow Booth-Level Officers to generate forms specifically for these voters, making their identification and the distribution process easier. "While the exercise has not yet begun on a large scale, some BLOs have already started identifying the excluded voters.

The process is expected to be undertaken across polling stations in a full-fledged manner from next week," another official saidAround 47.5 lakh names, accounting for nearly 32.8 per cent of Delhi's electorate, were excluded from the draft roll published on August 31. The draft contained about 97.5 lakh electors, compared with nearly 1.45 crore at the beginning of the revision.

Meanwhile, the number of Form 6 applications for fresh enrolment has crossed 5.16 lakh since the revision began, with more than 3.04 lakh applications received after the draft roll was published, according to official data. Between August 31 and November 11, election authorities received 3,04,352 Form 6 applications seeking inclusion in the electoral roll.During the same period, the authorities also received 30,954 Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of names and 1,11,516 Form 8 applications for correcting entries or recording a change of residence.The fresh distribution of enumeration forms is separate from the verification of nearly 33.1 lakh voters who were issued notices over inconsistencies or because their details could not be linked with the 2002 electoral roll.

These voters were included in the draft roll but were asked to establish their eligibility by submitting supporting documents.The Election Commission has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections from October 31 to November 25. The process of deciding claims and objections is scheduled to be completed by December 15, and the final electoral roll is due to be published on December 22.In summary, the portal changes are expected to help officials begin large-scale distribution of forms next week to voters excluded from the draft roll, while applications, verification and claims are processed before the final roll is published on December 22.- Ends