Voters should check electoral rolls instead of believing 'misleading' phone calls: Poll officer

Voters should themselves check electoral rolls instead of believing "misleading" phone calls claiming deletion of names from the voter list, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi Ranbir Singh said Thursday.

In accordance with the Election Commission of India direction, the office of the CEO will hold special camps on February 23-24 in all the 2,696 polling stations across Delhi to enrol voters whose names have been left out of electoral rolls, the officer said.

Singh said that around 25 complaints of misleading calls alleging deletion of names from the electoral roll have been received by his office.

"The complaints have been forwarded to Delhi Police. But, people should themselves check their names in electoral rolls than believing in the misleading calls," he said at a press conference here.

The ruling AAP has been alleging mass deletion of voters' names in Delhi after the 2015 Assembly elections, claiming the BJP's hand in it.

The BJP, in turn, has accused AAP volunteers of making phone calls to voters and falsely claiming that their names were put back on the electoral roll because of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's efforts.

The CEO said the poll panel's focus was to get more people added to the electoral rolls.

"Surprisingly, the number of voters in age group of 18-19 years is very low," he said.

"The number of voters in the age group 18-19 years is around one lakh in Delhi. It should be about 3-4 per cent of the total population of Delhi, which comes to six lakh," Singh said.

The final publication of Delhi's electoral rolls listed 1.36 crore voters. From November 1, 2018, fresh forms for enrolment were received from 2.18 lakh voters, out of which around 70 per cent have been disposed of, he said.

"The process of enrolment as a voter will continue up to 10 days prior to notification of elections. But, people should hurry up and fill their forms either online or offline to avoid getting left behind," the CEO said.

Voters can verify if their names are included in the voters list by sending an SMS on the mobile number 7738299899. It could be done by typing EPIC, leaving space and mentioning voter ID number to verify if one is enlisted as a voter, he said.

The special camps will be operational from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday, Singh added.