Residents of two working-class Muslim-majority settlements in Mumbai say they completed every step of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, yet still found themselves marked as “absent” or “shifted” in Maharashtra’s draft electoral roll.
According to Article 14, which reported the situation in Malvani and Ambujwadi in the city’s north-west, residents filled in their enumeration forms, matched their names to the 2002 electoral rolls and received signed acknowledgements from booth-level officers. Scores of them were still listed as absent or shifted in the draft, despite official assurances that no eligible voter would be left out.
The draft roll for Maharashtra was published on August 31, and the final roll is due on November 4. The deadline for filing claims and objections ended on September 30. A name missing from the draft is not automatically a final deletion, since voters can seek inclusion by filing Form 6, and officials ask applicants to keep their acknowledgement or reference number. The election authorities may verify applications and issue notices that voters must answer within a set time.
Concerns about exclusion in Muslim-dense areas have been building for weeks. Siasat reported that at least three in every ten voters in 38 Maharashtra constituencies with a higher Muslim population were likely to be left out of the draft roll.
In Chandivali, a Mumbai constituency where Muslims make up 27.6 per cent of the population, a 41.44 per cent rate of voters whose forms could not be collected was recorded. Community activists said the exercise had made people in Muslim neighbourhoods more aware of the process, with local groups helping them gather documents for the claims.
The Election Commission has said that the revision process isto clean up the rolls by removing dead, duplicate and ineligible voters. Critics, including opposition parties and civil society groups, say eligible voters from minority, migrant and poor communities are being removed in large numbers.
