More than 60% of the 3.3 million voters who were sent SIR notifications in Delhi have successfully completed the verification process after the Election Commission simplified the checking procedure at the end of last month.
Instead of requiring citizens to appear for hearings at government offices, BLO staff are visiting homes to collect necessary documents. Furthermore, BLOs have been empowered to make corrections for minor issues, such as spelling errors, without needing to provide an extensive package of documentation.
Notifications were handed out to approximately 3.3 million voters, including officials such as minister of the region Rekha Gupta, national coordinator AAP Arvind Kejriwal, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, and BJP veteran LK Advani, in September.
Meanwhile, over 19 million voters were flagged due to 'logical discrepancies,' including name mismatches and age inaccuracies. About 14 million were classified as 'unlinked' because their records could not be matched with the SIR 2002. These notifications required clarifications and supporting documents to verify eligibility for inclusion in the final SIR list, which is scheduled for December 4.
The office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi announced on Monday in an X post that they have started an active campaign to resolve these issues (discrepancies). He clarified that currently, about 20 million cases out of 3.3 million have been resolved. He also urged citizens to approach any of the 14,947 BLOs, 902 AERO, 70 ERO, 13 DEOs, or the Director General if they have any grievances. It was emphasized that no eligible voter will be excluded from the electoral roll.
The official representative told TOI that the processing of SIR notifications was very slow until the third week of September but accelerated after the introduction of new measures. Nearly 15,000 BLOs have been assigned to process at least 10 notifications daily. In cases involving logical discrepancies, they were instructed to verify the voter's age, Indian citizenship, and permanent residence in the district. Voters who meet the requirements will not be removed solely due to logical inconsistencies in their records.
Some BLOs told TOI that they are using BLO declarations to verify voters with minor discrepancies, such as a missing letter in the name, after checking documents and obtaining the voter's signature on the declarations. Some BLOs noted that they had been using such declarations for some time.
In the meantime, AEROs were asked to immediately upload data on resolved cases. The official representative noted that it was found that some AEROs had not uploaded already verified cases, partly because the deadline for the exercise had not yet arrived. They were instructed to promptly upload resolved cases.
In cases where voters could not be matched with previous electoral rolls, BLOs were tasked with promptly closing these cases after receiving and verifying prescribed documents, such as the voter's date of birth and other papers.
The Delhi electoral roll contained 15.6 million voters in January 2025, a few days before the assembly elections. In June, when SIR began, this number decreased to 14.5 million. The draft electoral roll published on August 31 included 9.75 million voters, with about 4.76 million names removed. The Election Commission explained that most of these people had moved and had not submitted transfer forms. Voters who received SIR notifications are among these 9.75 million voters. The processing of SIR notifications and completion of verification will continue until November 30.