Ahead of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) announcement of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Haryana, a preliminary voter-mapping exercise has revealed that only 64.06% of the state’s electorate could be linked with previous records.
Of Haryana’s 2.07 crore registered voters, only 1.32 crore could be successfully mapped during the exercise, which was conducted before the rollout of the SIR in Haryana and 15 other states and three Union Territories.
The mapping process involved matching names in the current electoral rolls with those in the last SIR conducted in 2002. In cases where voters’ names were not found in the 2002 rolls, officials attempted verification through the names of parents or other relatives.
Poorest mapping
in Faridabad
Faridabad emerged as the worst-performing district in the exercise. Of its 18.91 lakh voters, only 5.60 lakh could be mapped — just 29.61%. Gurugram also recorded low linkage figures, with only 5.42 lakh of its 15.54 lakh voters mapped, accounting for 34.84%. In Panchkula, 2.19 lakh out of 4.30 lakh voters were mapped, translating into 51.08%. Among other districts, Sonepat recorded 58.36% mapping, Panipat 58.83% and Rohtak 59.64%.
In contrast, Fatehabad recorded the highest linkage rate in the state, with 85.98% voters mapped.
Why SIR being conducted
According to the ECI, the Special Intensive Revision has been necessitated due to large-scale migration and frequent changes in electoral rolls, leading to issues such as duplicate voter registrations, non-removal of deceased voters and alleged inclusion of foreigners.
Under the exercise, Haryana’s 20,629 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will distribute enumeration forms to electors and assist them in linking their names with entries from the previous SIR or with the names of relatives already listed.
The BLOs will collect the forms and submit them to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs).
The EROs and AEROs will prepare draft rolls based on the received forms and issue notices to electors whose names cannot be matched with earlier records. They will also decide on inclusion or exclusion of names in the final rolls and dispose of claims and objections filed by voters or recognised political parties through their Booth Level Agents (BLAs). District Magistrates will hear the first appeals against decisions of EROs, while the Chief Electoral Officer will hear second appeals.
Revision exercise
In Haryana, BLOs will conduct house-to-house verification from June 15 to July 14. Polling stations will also be rationalised during this period, with a maximum cap of 1,200 voters per booth. The draft electoral rolls will be published on July 21, following which claims and objections can be filed till August 30.
