Last-minute form submissions, missing BLO details, conflicting info leave Delhi voters in limbo

A day after the enumeration phase of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi ended, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) on Tuesday struggled to verify and process forms submitted online in the final hours, even as voters maintained that they either had been unable to submit forms or asked to enrol as new voters during the claims and objections phase despite having valid voter ID cards.

At the end of the verification and mapping phase on Monday, enumeration forms of 97.5 lakh (67.2%) voters had been digitised and verified. The remaining voters have been placed in the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) list. It is expected to be published afterwards this week. A majority of the 47.6 lakh voters in the ASDDO list have been marked as ‘Shifted’ while nearly 10 lakh entries have been identified as ‘Duplicate’. Two to three lakh names have been placed in the ‘Others’ category, The Hindu has learnt.

‘Incorrect information’

Raj, a 21-year-old voter from the Malviya Nagar constituency, said his BLO informed him on August 10 that the deadline to enrol had ended. On August 7, the Election Commission had extended the deadline to August 17. “When I called the BLO, he said he could not accept the form as the deadline was over. I did not argue with him,” he said.

BLO cites ‘stress’

When reached for comment, the BLO did not deny misinforming Mr. Raj, citing “mounting stress”.

Mr. Raj is among 32.8% of voters in the city whose names will not appear in the draft roll that will be published on August 24.

Those excluded from the roll will have to submit Form 6 and a declaration during the claims and objections phase, from August 24 to September 23, to enrol themselves.

In another constituency in south Delhi, Shahnoor Mansoori, 23, said he was advised to let his name be deleted during the enumeration phase and enrol afresh during the claims and objections phase.

Almost a year ago, Mr. Mansoori had registered as a new voter in Delhi and was assigned a polling booth number based on his address. However, he maintained that he was unable to submit his enumeration form online because the system demonstrated a mismatch between his Aadhaar and Voter ID card details. The portal directed him to submit the form in person to his BLO. “When I contacted the area BLO, he said my enumeration form was with another BLO, but he never shared that official’s contact number,” he said.

Mr. Mansoori went to the nearest polling station and was advised to fill a form to register himself as a new voter during the claims and objections phase. “If this is such an important exercise, they should have been a little less casual,” he said.

Such instances have come to light despite election office-holders maintaining that all entries in the ASDDO list have been verified.

As of Tuesday morning, over 1,500 forms submitted online were awaiting verification, sources said, adding that the forms were submitted shortly before the deadline on Monday night and the option of making changes in the BLO app is no longer available.