More than 4.5 lakh ASD voters delisted in Uttarakhand in pre-SIR, SIR to begin on May 29

More than 4.5 lakh voters in Uttarakhand have been delisted because the Election Commission of India (ECI) could not find their names in the electoral rolls during a pre-Special Initiative for Roll (SIR) check. Ahead of the SIR, which begins on May 29, these names were removed because they fell into ASD categories.

In Uttarakhand, the number of voters dropped by 453,459 in the past year. As per the latest data from the office of the Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the state’s electorate size dropped from 8,429,459 to 7,976,000 in the Pre-SIR exercise since January 1, 2025. According to the state CEO’s office, the names of more than five lakh voters were delisted following a thorough process due to death, migration, duplication, and absence.

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The CEO’s office stated that many names on the electoral rolls were found missing due to relocation or deaths in the absence of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the ECI since 2003. Although the ECI did not release a new voter list in January this year as per convention, it worked on identifying Absent, Shifted, and Deceased (ASD) electorates for nearly a year including during Pre-SIR activities. Following this CEO office removed the duplicate names found in the rolls of more than one polling booths.

State Additional CEO Dr Vijay Kumar Jogdande said, “Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) were held in other states as well. It’s likely that large chunk of voters from Uttarakhand have returned to those states because they might have been enrolled there. Identification of ASD voters is a routine process by the ECI.”

According to Jogdande large-scale Booth Level Officer (BLO) mapping was carried out in the state as a pertaining of pre-SIR exercise. Out of 7,976,000 voters, the mapping for 70 lakh was completed successfully. However, record of 976 000 electorates from the 2003 list, when last SIR was held, couldn’t be obtained. Jogdande stated that all missing names from the 2003 voters’ list will be provided enumeration forms during the upcoming SIR, which starts on May 29. They will be required to fetch details of their 2003 vote. If the information is not provided or Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) remains unsatisfied with their details, electorates will be served notices for a mandatory response. Following this, names will be deleted if the response continued to be unsatisfactory.