Mumbai, May 22 (IANS) A state-wide door-to-door verification of nearly 9.86 crore electors will be carried out in Maharashtra from June 30 under a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise aimed at cleaning up electoral rolls. The exercise will be carried out through 1,00,253 Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

Speaking to the media, the state Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam on Friday said that to ensure complete fairness and eliminate bias, political parties have been requested to deploy Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to assist the BLOs.

So far, 1,13,558 BLAs have been appointed across the state by political parties, with the ECI urging parties to maximize appointments ahead of the June launch. Local poll bodies will soon host joint meetings with recognised political parties to coordinate the massive field exercise smoothly.

Responding to the demand by opposition parties on maintaining transparency in conducting SIR, Chockalingam said the draft list of proposed deletions will be shared transparently with recognised political parties at the assembly constituency level. BLAs appointed by political parties have the legal right to scrutinise these lists, raise objections, and challenge any wrongful deletion during the revision period before the final roll is published.

He said that due to ongoing census-related activities currently occupying local field machinery, the ECI has tailored a separate, dedicated schedule for Maharashtra.

The entire process, he said, will kick off next month and culminate before festival season in October. The draft electoral rolls will be published on August 5, filing of claims and objections on the draft rolls will take place from August 5 to September 4, and the disposal of claims and objections will be held up to October 3.

The final electoral rolls will be published on October 7. The mega-campaign comes in response to significant demographic shifts, rapid urbanisation, and large-scale population migration over the past two decades.

Chockalingam noted that while annual summary revisions have taken place, the lack of a deep physical audit has led to a high probability of duplicate entries, especially where voters relocated but failed to delete their names from their previous places of residence.

Voters will receive pre-filled enumeration forms containing current details alongside historical records mapped from the last SIR (2002-04). If a house is found locked, the BLO will make at least three attempts to revisit the household. To ensure convenience, voters can also choose to submit their updated and signed enumeration forms online. Citizens looking to cross-verify family data from the 2002-04 rolls can access them directly on the ECI portal (https://voters.eci.gov.in/) using basic details like Name, District, and Assembly Constituency.

“Following the publication of the draft roll on 5 August, the ECI will issue strict notices to voters whose records fail to match historical data or where discrepancies are uncovered. These lists will be prominently displayed at local self-government offices, Tehsildar offices, and official websites. Notably, the guidelines reiterate that while an Aadhaar card is permitted as identity proof under the ECI order dated 09.09.2025, this shall not be treated as proof of citizenship,” in accordance with Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act, 2026. Constitutional obligations under Article 326 mandate strict verification that every eligible voter is an Indian citizen and at least 18 years of age,” stated Chockalingam.

–IANS

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