Delhi SIR notices issued to Advani, Sisodia over voter details

Former deputy prime minister L K Advani and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia are among 33.13 lakh voters issued notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms during Delhi’s SIR. Their electoral entries will undergo verification before final rolls are published

New Delhi: Former deputy prime minister L K Advani and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia are among the prominent voters in Delhi whose names figure in the list of 33.13 lakh people being issued notices over “discrepancies” in details furnished under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika have been issued notices after their names could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR electoral roll, while his son Jayant cleared the mapping exercise. All four are voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

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Sisodia, his wife Seema and their son Meer have also been issued notices.

While the poll body has not cited any reason for sending a notice to Sisodia, Meer’s notice points to a “discrepancy in his parent’s name”, according to officials. The reason cited in his wife Seema’s notice is a “mismatch in her own name”.

A senior poll officer said the notices arose from “logical discrepancies” in the details furnished by voters in their enumeration forms.

Confirming that Advani and Sisodia figured in the list of 33.13 lakh voters issued notices, the officer said their names would be included in the final electoral rolls after due verification of facts and documents furnished by the voters.

The process of verification of facts and documents is underway and validation of entries is being carried out accordingly, he added.

Many prominent voters, including top government functionaries, bureaucrats and politicians, have been issued notices under the SIR.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and former Union minister Kapil Sibal have also been issued notices over similar reasons, officials said.

Gupta’s entry was validated after verification of documents, and her name has been cleared for inclusion in the final voter list of the Shalimar Bagh constituency, scheduled to be published on November 4.

The Delhi CEO’s office has said notices were being issued to voters whose names could not be linked to the electoral roll of the last SIR or whose details showed discrepancies when linked with the previous roll.

Each voter was required to submit an enumeration form during the door-to-door verification exercise conducted between June 30 and August 17.

Of around 97 lakh voters whose names are included in the draft rolls, 33.13 lakh have been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms. More than 31.63 lakh notices had been served so far.

Most notices relate to the absence of corresponding records in the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR in 2002.

The CEO’s office said the notices were being issued as part of the claims and objections phase of the SIR, which will conclude on September 30.

The voters have been asked to submit their replies and supporting documents to the Electoral Registration Officers of their respective Assembly constituencies by October 29.