Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are among 33.1 lakh electors in the Delhi draft electoral roll who have received notices, either due to “logical discrepancies” in their voter details or because their details could not be mapped to the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer published the list on September 18. Those flagged will need to get their documents verified to be included in the final electoral roll. Other prominent names on the list include former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh Dhankhar, former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal and his wife Promila Sibal, former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy, Delhi Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, former Delhi BJP president Virendra Kumar Sachdeva, historian Romila Thapar, and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj. Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s name also appears on the list, though the reason for the flag was left blank.
Gupta’s name was flagged in the Shalimar Bagh constituency for an “age gap of less than 15 years between a parent and progeny.” Following physical verification of documents at her address, her name has since been validated for inclusion in the final roll, according to the electoral registration officer.
Justice Lokur’s name was flagged over an age gap discrepancy involving his grandfather, while Parvesh Sahib Singh and Virendra Kumar Sachdeva were flagged for “self-name mismatch,” referring to inconsistencies between names listed in the current and previous rolls. In total, around 19.3 lakh electors in Delhi have been flagged under such “logical discrepancy” categories, of which there are 11 in total.
Kejriwal’s name, along with those of his parents, wife and son, was flagged under the separate “no mapping” category, meaning their details could not be linked to the previous SIR roll. Dhankhar, Sibal, Swamy, Thapar and Swaraj were also flagged in this category and will need to submit documents from a list of 12 prescribed by the Election Commission to establish eligibility.
A senior election official said prominent individuals would not need to visit hearing centres, with booth-level officers instead visiting their registered addresses to resolve discrepancies. The 33.1 lakh flagged electors make up roughly one-third of the 97.5 lakh total electors in the draft roll. Verification is to be completed by October 29, with the final electoral roll due for publication on November 4.
(Source: The Hindu)
