Delhi SIR: CM Rekha Gupta, Kejriwal among voters issued notices over discrepancies

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal are among prominent voters who have been issued notices over discrepancies in their enumeration forms during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, officials said on Saturday.

Gupta's entry was flagged under the category of logical discrepancies, but the Election Commission said it was subsequently verified through field verification and scrutiny of the documents provided by her. Her electoral entry has now been validated and will be included in the final electoral roll for the Shalimar Bagh Assembly constituency, scheduled to be published on November 4.

The notice to Gupta was issued over an age-related discrepancy, officials said.

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer's office said 33.13 lakh voters whose names figure in the draft electoral rolls have been identified for notices over discrepancies in their enumeration form details. Of these, 31.63 lakh had been served notices as of Saturday.

Most of the notices relate to voters whose details could not be linked to the electoral roll from the previous SIR conducted in 2002.

Kejriwal, a voter in the New Delhi Assembly constituency, was issued a notice for being "unmapped with last SIR". His wife Sunita Kejriwal, parents and son have also received notices on the same grounds.

Kejriwal lost the New Delhi Assembly seat in the Delhi Assembly elections held in February last year.

Reacting to the notices issued to Kejriwal and his family, AAP national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda questioned the process and raised concerns over their names in the electoral roll.

Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who is also a voter in the New Delhi constituency, received a notice for being "unmapped with last SIR", officials said.

Former Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva was issued a notice over a name-related discrepancy. He said he would get the details corrected by submitting the required documents. His wife and brother have also received notices, he said.

The CEO office said the notices were being issued as part of the claims and objections phase of the SIR, which will continue until September 30.

The list of voters issued notices has been uploaded on the Delhi CEO office's website. The notices cover voters whose details could not be linked to the electoral roll from the previous SIR as well as those whose records contain discrepancies in the linking process.

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 CEO office also said that, in accordance with Election Commission instructions, names of prominent voters, including people from the judiciary, elected representatives and fields such as arts, culture, journalism, sports and public service, that had been flagged in the electoral database were retained in the draft rolls to enable verification and collection of necessary documents during the claims and objections phase.

The draft electoral roll was published on August 31 following the door-to-door enumeration exercise conducted from June 30 to August 17.