Booth Level Officers (BLOs) across Delhi had initially marked many of Delhi’s prominent leaders who were flagged for notices, such as Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, BJP veteran L.K. Advani, former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration phase, as “permanently shifted” or “absent/untraceable” after field verification. They were subsequently retained in the draft roll after check against “marked electors” database meant to ensure that such electors were not left out, senior poll officials across constituencies told The Hindu.
The status of the enumeration form was changed on the BLO application after a fresh direction to check the database of “marked electors” who had been specially flagged as public representatives, holders of declared offices and prominent personalities. The change was made against existing records irrespective of the outcome of the ground verification, officials said.
This meant that several prominent electors whose forms had initially been marked based on field verification and status of their enumeration forms were “uncollectable” were retained in the draft electoral roll.
According to a report by the Reporters’ Collective, a “mark VIP” feature was added to the BLO application on July 30. The enumeration exercise in Delhi was extended for the second time on August 4, with the final date being August 17. Though the EC guidelines recognizes “marked electors”, there is no mention of the term “VIP”.
Many of them, however, were later flagged for notices for “no mapping” with the previous SIR roll or for logical discrepancies.
‘dead, duplicates were to be excluded’
However, a senior official also said that there were supposed to have two exceptions in “marked electors”: dead and duplicate voters. “But even that was not followed,” he said.
The Hindu reported that former head of PM Narendra Modi’s economic advisory council, Bibek Debroy’s name was included in the draft roll and was flagged for notice for “nomapping“ even though he had passed away in 2024.
There are 97.5 lakh electors on the draft roll of Delhi. Of these, 33.1 lakh electors flagged for “no mapping” or logical discrepancies are being served notices. A total of 47.56 lakh voters have been excluded from the draft roll and placed in the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead or duplicate) category. Verification and disposal of these cases are to be completed by October 29, with the final electoral roll scheduled to be published on November 4.
What do rules say?
Under the EC’s guidelines for the SIR, the draft electoral roll was prepared on the basis of duly filled enumeration forms received and successfully verified by booth-level officers (BLOs). The same SoP also contained a para regarding publication of draft roll, “all names of member of judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields of arts, culture, journalism, sports, and public services etc. earlier flagged in the electoral database, have been included in the draft Electoral Rolls, so that necessary documents can also be collected during the period of Claims and Objections.”
The Electoral Roll Manual, 2023, also recognises such “marked electors” and directs Electoral Registration Officers to ensure that their names are present in the proposed draft roll. It says appropriate flagging should be done in the electoral database to prevent wrongful deletion of such electors in future.
These were called “VIPs” for communication internally and on the BLO app even though there is no such term in the EC’s guildlines, the officials said.
“The BLOs then simply used the list given to them to mark their forms has collected so that their names appear in the draft roll as per rules“ he said.
The database of marked electors was not created specifically for the current SIR. Officials said such flags were part of the electoral database and were meant to be routinely updated under EC guidelines.
Database intervention
Officials in New Delhi and Delhi Cantonment — the two constituencies where atleast 50 such electors were flagged for notices in Delhi — said BLOs had conducted field verification and dealt with these electors like others before the separate database check.
“This doesn’t mean that our BLOs did not visit their residences. Forms were delivered and collected wherever they could, like for other people. But we paid attention to see no one from the list that we have is being left out despite their status of enumeration form,” officials said.
They added that “most of them have shifted and don’t live at the registered address.”
The notable names that were found on both draft roll and later flagged for notices for no mapping with last SIR or logical discrepancies included External Affaris minister S. Jaishankar, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu ,Former CECs Arun Goel and Sushil Chandra.
The names of other public figures were later flagged for notices, including historian Romila Thapar, senior advocate Indira Jaising, journalist Sheela Bhatt, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, Delhi Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, former Delhi BJP president Virendra Kumar Sachdeva and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj.
Among these who were flagged for notices, a senior official had said they would not be required to visit hearing centres. The EROs will prepare a list of such cases and direct BLOs to visit their registered addresses to verify the records and resolve the discrepancies.