EC deletes 5.1 million ineligible voters

Had the Election Commission of India (ECI) chosen to adopt a laid-back approach in Karnataka, the coming assembly elections would have recorded a whopping 56 lakh false votes.

But the ECI chose to be more vigilant. By undertaking a major exercise to revise the electoral rolls with 42.7 million voters, it has so far succeeded in deleting the names of 5.1 million ineligible voters.

"These are the voters who are either dead, have shifted their residences or non-existent,'' Chief Electoral Officer R Ramseshan told reporters here on Wednesday. These names, if not deleted, could be misused by anti-social elements to rig polls.

The ECI, in fact, decided to clean-up the electoral rolls following complaints from politicians and general public about selective inclusion and deletion of voters' names. An intensive revision of the electoral rolls was conducted in the last one month throughout the state involving around 45,000 government officials and the false votes identified.

"Some people were also found to have enrolled their names at two different places which is legally not allowed,'' he said. The highest number of such voters were identified in Greater Bangalore City Corporation (GBCC) limits and in Bangalore urban district. In GBCC limits alone, a total of 4,70,000 false voters are all set to be deleted.

According to Ramseshan, the revised electoral rolls will see a reduction of 7 per cent voters compared to the rolls prepared last year.

This apart, the EC has also identified 2.4 million persons whose names have not been included in the electoral rolls. Of these, 2 million names are being added to the rolls.

"It is a major task on our hands and we need some time to correct the rolls. Field verification process is complete and date entry process is underway," Ramseshan added.

The ECI has announced that it will publish the draft electoral list on February 14 and will entertain objections to it till February 22. The final electoral list, on the basis of which the assembly elections will be held, will be published on March 10.

The process of issuing voter identity cards to new voters will commence from February 16 and will continue till March-end.

Those who have got their names enlisted in the electoral rolls will be eligible to obtain identity cards by paying Rs 25. So far more than 20 million voter identity cards have been issued and nearly 10 million people are yet to receive their cards.