Delhi CM Rekha Gupta, former CM Kejriwal flagged for notices in ongoing SIR

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are among 33.1 lakh electors in the draft electoral roll against whom notices are generated for either “logical discrepancies” in their voter details or because their details were not mapped to the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral roll.

The list of electors flagged for discrepancies was published polling booth-wise by the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer on September 19. Document verification is done through hearings for flagged anomalies and to establish eligibility in case of no mapping.

Ms. Gupta’s name figures in the list of electors flagged for notices in part number 123 of Shalimar Bagh. The Election Commission’s software has identified her record for an “age gap of less than 15 years between a parent and progeny.” Meanwhile, the system has also flagged Delhi minister Parvesh Sahib Singh’s record for “self name mismatch” between the current and last SIR roll in part number 59 of the New Delhi Assembly constituency. He is the son of former Chief Minister of Delhi, Sahib Singh Verma.

There are 11 categories of such discrepancies in Delhi, including a mismatch in names between the current and previous rolls, more than six progeny being linked to the same parent, an age gap of less than 40 years between a voter and a grandparent, and a mismatch in the father’s name or the relative to whom the elector has been linked. Similar categories of mapping anomalies have been identified by the EC in SIR exercises in other States.

Around 19.3 lakh electors in Delhi have been flagged for such “logical discrepancies”.

Mr. Kejriwal’s name, along with those of his parents, Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi, wife Sunita Kejriwal and son Pulkit Kejriwal, has been flagged under “no mapping”. This category covers electors whose details, or those of a relative, were not provided or could not be linked to the previous SIR roll during the enumeration exercise.

Electors in the no-mapping category will have to establish their eligibility by submitting documents from the 12 documents prescribed by the EC for the verification process.

A senior election official said prominent leaders and other well-known personalities would not be required to visit hearing centres. The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) would prepare a list of such cases and direct Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to visit their registered addresses to verify and resolve the discrepancies, the official said.

The 33.1 lakh electors who have received notices constitute roughly one-third of the 97.5 lakh electors included in the draft roll. The verification and disposal of these cases are to be completed by October 29, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4.