SIR voter roll revision: 1.69 crore deletions across 9 states as electorate drops 7.9%; Kerala adds 4.24 lakh first-time voters

New Delhi: Final electoral rolls for six states and Union Territories - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala and the UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands - undergoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were published on Saturday, reflecting a combined electorate of 15.25 crore voters.

With this, nine of the 12 Phase-II SIR states/UTs have released their final rolls, accounting for a total electorate of 19.75 crore. These states have recorded over 1.69 crore deletions compared to the pre-SIR rolls, bringing the overall reduction to 7.9% from the earlier 21.21 crore electorate base.

The sharpest deletions in this round, compared to the pre-SIR rolls, were recorded in Andaman & Nicobar Islands (16.86%), followed by Chhattisgarh and Goa. Earlier, Gujarat had registered a 13% reduction in its final roll.

Among the larger states, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh recorded deletions of over 5%, while poll-bound Kerala saw a reduction of over 3%. In absolute terms, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh reported over 31 lakh and 34 lakh deletions respectively, while Chhattisgarh saw a decline of 24 lakh voters. Andaman & Nicobar Islands recorded over 52,000 deletions.

Kerala also added 4,24,518 first-time voters in the 18-19 age group, while Goa's data shows this segment accounts for 0.89% of its total electorate. Kerala further recorded around 1.5 lakh registrations of overseas voters.

Final electoral rolls for poll-bound Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are expected next week, while Uttar Pradesh is likely to take longer, with April 10 set as the deadline.