The State election authority, the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, has received as many as 23.87 lakh applications a day before the deadline for filing claims and objections relating to the special summary revision (SSR) of electoral rolls concludes on Tuesday.
Of the total applications, the election authority received close to 8.75 lakh applications including 5.8 lakh for new enrolment through form 6 during the campaign period which was launched on September second week. The State election authority, according to sources, is anticipating the number of applications, particularly those relating to enrolment of new voters and requests by voters whose names were missing from the draft voters list that was released on September 1, to cross 25 lakh by the end of the deadline.
The CEO’s office launched the campaign after the TRS Government headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao dissolved the Legislative Assembly on September 6 and the Election Commission of India communicated the revised schedule for SSR setting September 25 deadline for receipt of claims and objections.
Enrolment to continue
CEO Rajat Kumar exhorted voters who found their names missing from the voters’ lists to utilise the opportunity to enrol their names before Tuesday evening, the deadline fixed by the Election Commission. The September 25 deadline, he clarified, was for receiving claims and objections and that the enrolment of new voters would continue till 10 days before the last date of filing of nominations.
The huge number of applications received include the forms that were received during the door to door campaign for revision of electoral rolls taken up between May 21 and June 30 and carried forward. “The applications received online as also the physical forms along with the registrations made through the National Voters Service Portal are being processed and eligible names will be included in the voters’ lists,” he asserted.
The development assumes significance in the light of the complaints lodged by the Opposition parties, the Congress in particular, about the “deliberate” deletion of names of more than 30 lakh voters to benefit the ruling party in the elections whenever they were held.