BJD chief Naveen Patnaik discusses SIR, organisational issues with leaders
Bhubaneswar, July 27
BJD president and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday held discussions with senior party leaders at Naveen Nivas on the Special Intensive Revision and organisational matters.
On July 6, around 8.32 lakh deceased voters, 10.07 lakh shifted or permanently absent voters, and 1.58 lakh duplicate registrations have been excluded from the draft electoral roll in Odisha.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sushanta Kumar Mishra said nearly 14,000 voters could not be included as their enumeration forms were not received.
"The first category is about those who are dead or deceased. Around 8.32 lakh voters are dead, so their names have been deleted. Another 10.07 lakh voters are either shifted or permanently absent. There is one more category where voters have been registered in two different places or more than one place. About 1.58 lakh voters are registered in more than one place. In the case of around 14,000 voters, we could not receive the enumeration forms back. That is the reason why we are not able to include them in the draft list," Mishra said.
He added that eligible voters can file claims and objections until August 4, while hearings on the applications will be completed by September 2.
"For these people, we have another month during which they can submit their claims and objections, and the hearings will be completed by 2nd September. We have two months during which they can provide information, submit applications, and raise any claims or objections they want. The period for raising claims and objections will be up to 4th August," Sushanta Kumar Mishra said.
The draft electoral roll was published on July 5, 2026. The state authorities have maintained that the exercise is part of a transparent and inclusive effort to maintain an updated electoral database.
The final electoral roll for Odisha is scheduled to be published on September 6, following a thorough verification of all claims and objections.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Good initiative but genuinely concerned about the 1.58 lakh duplicate registrations. How did these happen in the first place? And more importantly, how many of those are actually duplicates vs genuine voters being wrongly flagged? The Election Commission must ensure no one's voting rights are unfairly removed. Also, the 14,000 voters not included due to missing forms is worrying - what if those forms were lost in transit?
As an Odia, I'm glad to see Naveen Babu taking this seriously. The SIR process is crucial for fair elections. But why is this happening just now? Should have been done much earlier. Also, 8.32 lakh deceased voters still on rolls shows how outdated our system was. Kudos to the officials for starting this cleanup, but the real test will be if the final roll published on September 6 is truly error-free.
Interesting timing... July 5 draft publication and final on September 6. That's barely two months for such a massive exercise involving nearly 20 lakh voter records. I hope the hearings are conducted fairly and not rushed. My one concern: what about voters who've shifted but their new addresses aren't updated? They could end up being disenfranchised. The process needs to be more citizen-friendly, maybe an online portal for claims would help.
I work as an election observer and have seen similar exercises elsewhere. The scale here is impressive - cleaning almost 20 lakh records is no joke. But I'm a bit skeptical about the 1.58 lakh duplicates being genuinely multiple registrations. Could some of these be voters with slightly different spellings of names across constituencies? The Election Commission should publish clear criteria for how duplicates are identified. Transparency builds trust.
K We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.