Delhi elections 2015: Final electoral list swells by 2.24 lakh new voters

NEW DELHI: Delhi has added nearly 2.24 lakh voters between January 5, when the final rolls for 2015 were published, and January 21, the last day of nomination for the February 7 assembly poll. There are now 1,33,09,078 electors in Delhi (besides 5,110 service voters and 27 NRI voters), up from 1,30,85,251 voters listed in January 5 rolls. And among this 1.33-crore strong electorate, there are 2.27 lakh first-time voters in the age group of 18-19 years.

The EC had, while responding to earlier complaints by Congress and AAP alleging large-scale "fake/bogus" entries in Delhi's voters list, reassured them that the supplementary rolls to be published on the last day of nomination would take care of the pending additions and deletions. Accordingly, of the nearly 5.80 lakh inclusions applied for, the EC has accepted 4.12 lakh requests and rejected 1.55 lakh. The EC also approved pleas for deletion of around 24,000 names and suo motu deleted 17,612 'spurious' names, while correcting nearly 89,000 entries and agreeing to transpose another 42,000 in the supplementary rolls.

The Delhi electorate now comprises nearly 73,89,089 male and 59,19,127 female electors, besides 862 voters belonging to the third gender, 5110 service electors and 27 NRI voters. This translates into an increase of around 1.28 lakh male voters, 95,000 women voters and 11 third-gender electors over the January 5 figures.

Among the 2,27,316 voters in the 18-19 years age group, 1,46,114 are men and 81,202 women. In percentage terms, the newly-eligible voters constitute 1.7% of the total electorate.

Interestingly, a fair number of additions, deletions and corrections were incorporated in the supplementary rolls published on January 21. As per the rule, rolls cannot be revised beyond the last day of nomination.

Around 5.80 lakh applications were received for inclusion of names in the rolls across Delhi's 70 constituencies, while objections to inclusion and deletion requests were filed in over 23,500 cases. As many as 17612 names were suo motu deleted, and corrections/transposing sought in over 1 lakh entries and 40,000 entries respectively.

During the special enrolment camp conducted by the Delhi CEO on 11 January, 89,178 Form 6 applications, seeking inclusion of names in the Delhi rolls, were received. Of these, 15,018 were approved, 972 rejected, while 73,188 applications were pending for verification as on January 21.