Thiruvananthapuram: The mystery continues to deepen over the disappearance of 6.5 lakh voters in Kerala during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) unable to locate them or serve them enumeration forms despite repeated attempts.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has also failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for how such a large number of voters vanished from the rolls. These missing voters constitute 2.3 per cent of the total 2.78 crore voters listed in the electoral rolls published in October this year — a proportion significant enough to potentially influence election outcomes.

The consolidated list of voters classified as Absent, Relocated, or Dead/Duplicate (ASD) was released only at the state level. However, despite repeated demands from political parties and the state government, the State Election Commission has not published district-wise or constituency-wise figures or the names under each category. Only booth-level lists of those excluded have been shared with political parties and uploaded on the Commission’s website.

Interestingly, the number of voters excluded from the SIR draft rolls is much higher in certain Assembly constituencies where some political parties had an upper hand in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Allegations are mounting that these untraceable voters were bogus entries added to the rolls by certain political parties.

1.5 lakh voters ‘missing’ in Thiruvananthapuram
Of the 4.07 lakh voters removed across the 14 Assembly constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram district, more than 1.5 lakh could not be traced by Booth Level Officers. In Nemom, Vattiyoorkavu and Thiruvananthapuram constituencies alone, over 20,000 voters each were found to be untraceable.

These constituencies have a high concentration of flats and large residential complexes, where the scope for enrolling bogus voters is considered relatively higher. This, it is learnt, may have added to the challenges faced by BLOs during the verification process. Meanwhile, details from other districts are yet to be made available.