Thiruvananthapuram: Up to 24,08,503 voters have been removed from the rolls in Kerala, according to the draft voter list published Tuesday under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise being conducted by the Election Commission. The deletion amounts to 8.65 percent of those in the previous list.
According to State Chief Electoral Officer Rathan U. Kelkar, the Election Commission was able to retrieve 91.35 percent of the partially filled enumeration forms distributed to voters across the state. Kerala had a total of 2,78,50,855 voters as on 27 October, before the SIR was started, of which Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were able to collect 2,54,42,352 forms.
Of the voters covered under the SIR, 1,23,83,341 are male 1,30,58,731 female and 280 third-gender voters.
Among the uncollectable forms, 6,49,885 voters were dead, 6,44,548 absentees, 8,16,221 had shifted location, 1,36,029 were duplicates, and 1,60,830 fell under other categories.
“People included in the uncollectable category who are eligible should submit the appropriate forms available on the website,” Kelkar said, adding that the next one month has been set aside for filing claims and objections and that nearly 1,000 officials will be deployed during the hearing period.
“If anybody wants to file an appeal against the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), they can do so with the district collector within 15 days. If they are unhappy with the collector’s decision, they have 30 days to approach the CEO,” he said.
“The mandate of the SIR itself is to include all eligible voters in the list and remove ineligible voters. We have published the draft today and request everyone to check their names in the draft rolls. If anyone wants to add or make changes, they can apply using the subsequent forms,” Kelkar said, while also thanking booth-level officers, agents, and others who helped complete the process.
He said BLOs visited households three times before marking a voter as untraceable.
“If a voter remains untraceable after three visits and enquiries with local residents, there is little more the booth-level officer can do,” he said, adding that booth-level agents were also asked to verify details. He noted that the draft list was in the public domain and had also been shared with political parties.
Last week, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said the right to vote shouldn’t be cancelled on technical grounds. In a statement, he also said the draft roll being prepared in Kerala was “riddled with anomalies”.
“The Election Commission must ensure that not a single eligible voter whose name figured in the voter list during the special summary revision conducted in September 2025 is excluded from the revised list prepared under the SIR. Information related to the SIR must be made transparent and made available on the website in a manner accessible to political parties and the general public,” he stated.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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