Delhi SIR: Advani, Sisodia, EC officials, top bureaucrats among 33 lakh flagged

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani, former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal are among the names that have been flagged during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi’s electoral rolls.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office said 33.13 lakh voters whose names appeared in the draft rolls had been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms. Of these, 31.63 lakh had been served notices as of September 19. Most of the notices relate to voters whose details could not be linked to the previous SIR roll of 2002.

Prominent leaders and families receive notices

Advani, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika were issued notices after their names could not be mapped to the 2002 electoral roll. His son Jayant, however, cleared the mapping process. All four are voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

Also read: Delhi SIR: SC to hear plea against deletion of names from electoral rolls on Sept 21

Sisodia, his wife Seema and their son Meer have also received notices. Officials said the reasons cited in the family’s notices included a discrepancy in the parent’s name and a mismatch in the voter’s own name.

Kejriwal and his family were issued notices after their records could not be linked to the previous SIR roll. Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal, who is also a voter in New Delhi, received a notice for being “unmapped with last SIR”.

Gupta’s case has already been cleared. Her notice was linked to an age-related discrepancy. After verification of her documents, her electoral entry was validated and her name has been parked for inclusion in the final roll for Shalimar Bagh, scheduled to be published on November 4.

‘Logical discrepancies’

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 identified for notices, the officer said their names would be included in the final electoral rolls after verification of the facts and documents submitted by them.

Bureaucrats’ names also flagged

Several serving and retired IAS officers have also received notices over discrepancies and lack of mapping. Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and some other senior officials have also received notices over mismatches in their names.

Also read: Delhi SIR: Kejriwal, 4 family members get ‘unmapped’ notices

Among those reported to have received notices are Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood, Health Secretary Punya Salila, Fisheries Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi, Fertiliser Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra and Land Resources Secretary Narendra Bhooshan.

Name mismatch

Some bureaucrats received notices over mismatches in names. These include Expenditure Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam. Comptroller and Auditor General K Sanjay Murthy, a former IAS officer, received a notice over a “parent name mismatch”.

Several retired bureaucrats and officials have also received notices, including former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, former JNU vice-chancellor and UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, former animal husbandry secretary Alka Upadhyay, former consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, former CISF director-general Nina Singh, former defence secretary Giridhar Aramane and former environment secretary Leena Nandan.

CEO clarification

The Delhi CEO’s office 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 compared 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.

Also read: ‘Shah Instigated Removal’ of voters: Cong flags large-scale voter deletions in SIR

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.

Voters who receive notices have been asked to submit their replies and supporting documents to the Electoral Registration Officers of their respective Assembly constituencies by October 29.

The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4.

(With agency inputs)