Parties Intrigued by Uncollectible Forms

Chennai: Top political parties are concerned over the 84.91 lakh enumeration forms, distributed to voters under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, remaining ‘uncollectible’ for the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) appointed by the Election Commission of India with just eight more days left from the completion of the initial but crucial process on December 11.

While the stressed out BLOs are expecting some reduction of workload after the Supreme Court issued a slew of directions to the Election Commission of India on Thursday, party workers were worried if any of the voters possibly facing deletion from the electoral rolls due to the non-compliance of returning the filled up enumeration form before the deadline were their supporters.

But a report prepared by the officials revealed that 84.91 lakh names out of the total 6.41 crore in the rolls now, amounting to 13.24 percent, could possibly be struck down with the BLOs remaining unable to track them down owing to a plethora of reasons. Some had shifted out of their homes permanently, some passed away and some having double entry in the electoral rolls, it said.

Political party leaders at the grassroots level are however concerned by the trend as they fear that there could be voters owing allegiance to their parties among those who have not returned the forms or remain untraceable. For there could be voters who have shifted residence temporarily, like going abroad for a short stay or moving to a new place and not bothering about registering themselves.

Chennai district figures on top of the number of uncollectible forms list with 12.73 lakh of the total 40.05 lakh voters not returning the forms, accounting for 2.73 per cent. Lowest in the possible list of names that could be struck down comes Ariyalur district where only 4.3 percent voters had not returned the forms.

Since the names of those who had not returned the forms would not figure in the draft electoral roll to be published on December 16 and voters would have to apply for inclusion of their names later on, political parties fear that some of their supporters might not take the trouble of going through the laborious process and blissfully give up their voting right.

Even the Election Commission not wanting to face future complaints and possible litigations want their BLOs to somehow get back as many forms as possible, which they are now doing in a last minute effort. Workers of some political parties say that many people who have shifted home within Chennai itself- the city continues to expand by the minute- could hate the idea of doing the paperwork to establish their new addresses and give up on the voting right.