Weeks ago, long-time residents of a jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster on the Yamuna floodplains, falling under the Bela Estate polling area of the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency, were shocked to learn that their names would not figure in the post-special intensive revision draft electoral roll after their houses were demolished by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in 2023.
After the demolition, the residents continued to live at the same address in makeshift shanties and even cast their votes in the 2024 and 2025 elections. As poll officials visited for address verification on Friday, the residents said they felt a step closer to getting their names back on the electoral roll.
The pre-SIR electoral roll for the area had 729 voters, of whom 728 were placed on the ASDD (absent, shifted, dead and duplicate) list in the draft roll. According to Kamal Lal, a resident, 550 of those voters continue to live in the JJ cluster and had submitted their enumeration forms, but were still placed on the ASDD list. Of these 550 residents, 462 have now submitted Form 6 applications to be included in the electoral roll.
Proving existence
Badrinath Jha, a resident, said officials visited the area in the afternoon and called out names from at least 10-15 Form 6 applications to verify that the applicants lived there.
“Not everybody was present because some had gone to their daily-wage jobs. This is a fight to prove our existence and our right to vote, which everyone has. And we will win it,” he said.
Mr. Lal has been trying to meet officials and submit grievances.
“During the enumeration process, Electoral Registration Officer Manoj Kumar told us that despite submitting the enumeration forms, our names would not be included in the draft roll because of the DDA demolition action here,” he said.
Mr. Lal, who retrieved electoral rolls dating back to 1962, said, “My great-grandfather’s name is on that roll. All our names were on the 2025 electoral roll when we were residing here. Where can we go?”
He kept photocopies of all 550 enumeration forms before handing them over to the BLO.
Mr. Lal said he was now hopeful that their names would be restored on the roll and that all the Form 6 applications would be accepted.
“We have submitted all the documents we had as address proof,” he added.
Assistant Electoral Registration Officer Sunil Kumar said, “We are verifying whatever they have submitted along with their Form 6 and doing field verification. We are also setting up camps.”
Published – September 19, 2026 01:25 am IST
