India's Electoral Rolls Shrink: Highest Deletions in Andaman and Nicobar Islands | India News
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India's electoral rolls have shrunk significantly following the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise. The exercise, which affected 12 states and union territories, resulted in a total of 66 million potential deletions, accounting for 13% of the 510 million people in the regions. Andaman and Nicobar Islands recorded the highest percentage of deletions at 21%, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat with 19.2%, 15.2%, and 14.5% deletions, respectively. Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Kerala, and Goa also saw significant deletions, ranging from 8.6% to 12.9%. The deletions were mainly due to electors being found untraceable, absent, or permanently shifted, with 24.8 million names removed from the rolls. In addition, 10 million electors were found to be dead, and 1.9 million were found enrolled in multiple places. Kerala's chief electoral officer, Rathan U Kelkar, said that a voter mapping exercise was conducted until December 18, with 93% of the process completed. The remaining cases are from urban and semi-urban areas, and hearings will be held for non-mapped voters. The final electoral rolls will be published in February next year, with Kerala going to the polls in the summer, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the winter of 2028, and Uttar Pradesh on New Year's Eve. The SIR exercise marks the ninth revision of electoral rolls since Independence, and the process will continue until the final rolls are published.
