New Delhi: Muslim-majority constituencies in the national capital have recorded disproportionately high voter exclusions in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with some seats seeing nearly half their registered voters removed from the draft electoral rolls.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office published draft electoral rolls for all 70 assembly constituencies on August 31. Across the capital, 47.5 lakh out of 1.45 crore voters have been excluded, marking a deletion rate of 33 per cent, the highest among all states and Union Territories undertaking the SIR exercise.
Among the seven minority-dominated constituencies, Okhla recorded the most alarming figure. The seat, currently held by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amantullah Khan, saw 1,63,829 voters removed from a total of 3,62,813, amounting to a 45 per cent exclusion rate, leaving only 1,98,984 voters in the draft rolls.
Other Muslim-majority seats also recorded deletions well above or near the city average. In Tughlaqabad, 92,033 out of 1,92,419 enumeration forms were not collected. Chandni Chowk saw 38 per cent of its voters excluded, numbering 48,405 voters. Ballimaran recorded 32 per cent exclusions with 49,640 voters dropped. Mustafabad saw 28 per cent deletions amounting to 80,804 voters, followed by Babarpur at 26 per cent with 55,264 exclusions, Matia Mahal at 24 per cent with 32,099 voters removed, and Seelampur at 23 per cent with 45,105 exclusions.
Despite the high exclusion rates, officials noted that minority-dominated seats had witnessed relatively higher submission of enumeration forms compared to general seats during the door-to-door verification exercise conducted between June 30 and August 17. Digitisation of completed forms stood at 76.6 per cent in Seelampur, 75.5 per cent in Matia Mahal, 72.9 per cent in Babarpur, and 71.9 per cent in Mustafabad.
The Delhi CEO office placed excluded voters under the ASDDO category, covering absent, shifted, dead, duplicate, and others. Of the 47,56,722 total exclusions, 43,32,775 fell under the permanently shifted or absent classification. Deceased voters numbered 2,82,412, while those enrolled at multiple locations totalled 1,41,535.
Voters excluded from the draft rolls retain the option to seek reinstatement in the final rolls, which are scheduled for publication on November 4. They must submit Form 6 during the claims and objections phase, which closes on September 30.
