EC deletes 17 lakh names from Maharashtra electoral list

PUNE: Election Commission of India (EC) officials have deleted 17 lakh names from the Maharashtra voters’ list and nearly 81,000 of those were from Pune district.

The election officials are deleting multiple entries and names of the deceased voters to ensure a clean electoral roll. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, many voters were not allowed to cast their ballots because their names were missing in the list.


“This time, the deletion was mostly of the deceased voters and those who have shifted out of state,” said an official in the chief electoral office.

“Some of the deleted names were of people who registered multiple times. Names of the deceases voters were deleted after the booth level officers (BLO) checked the death certificates. The authentication of the voters is on and more names will be deleted in the coming weeks,” he added.

In the district, 81,005 names were deleted from the voters list, Pune deputy election officer Monica Singh. Of these 54,584 names were deleted in the draft roll, officials said, adding that 44,736 names were of deceased voters and 26,421 names were deleted in the summary roll published on January 31.

Singh said no names of the voters would be deleted once the election schedule was announced.

District collector Naval Kishore Ram said after the 2014 Lok Sabha election experience, the administration has directed all the BLOs from 21 Assembly constituencies to verify, check and ensure “ample proof” before deleting any name.

The deletion process started a year ago in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections and the process to clean up the electoral list included deletion of duplicate names of married women enrolled at two constituencies — one with their maiden names and the other with their new surnames.