Election Commission trims electoral rolls by 10.2% across 12 states, UTs

New Delhi: The combined voters' list of nine states and three Union territories has been pruned by 10.2 per cent following the SIR exercise carried out by the Election Commission, with over 60 lakh dead voters removed, data shared by the poll authority and its state officials shows.

When phase II of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was announced by the EC on October 27, the voter base across the 12 states and UTs stood at more than 50.99 crore.

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Post the exercise, the voters' list stands at 45.81 crore -- a decline of over 5.18 crore. In percentage terms, the electoral rolls have been reduced by 10.2 per cent.

As many as 66,88,636 deceased electors have been removed from the rolls, with the maximum of 25.47 lakh from Uttar Pradesh, followed by 24.16 lakh from poll-going West Bengal.

Additionally, 63.16 lakh names were deleted following objections and adjudication during the SIR exercise.

The second phase of SIR has now been completed with the final electoral rolls of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Puducherry, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa published on different dates.

Uttar Pradesh was the last state to release its final rolls on Friday.

While the exercise, which kept the EC in the news, had earlier been completed in Bihar, the second phase covering the above-mentioned 12 states and Union territories, with nearly 51 crore electors, has now concluded.

The remaining 40 crore electors will be covered across 17 states and five Union territories when the SIR kicks off, likely after this month's polls to five assemblies.

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These states and UTs are: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

In Assam, a "special revision", instead of the SIR, was completed on February 10.

Due to a variety of reasons, the SIR exercise in the nine states and three Union territories has seen frequent tweaking in schedules.

Like Bihar, political parties have approached the Supreme Court, challenging the exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.