ECI Software May Delete Six Lakh More Names

As things stand, 73.39 lakh names have already been deleted from the base list of 3.38 crore voters prepared for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Another five lakh voters from the ASDD list are expected to be deleted once the ECI runs the DSE at the national level. The list could be pared down to 2.6 crore voters, 26 per cent less than the 2024 figure.

Apart from the 73 lakh deletions following the Enumeration Phase in Telangana and an estimated two lakh deletions during the ‘notice period’, officials project that no fewer than five lakh names will be removed once the DSE is applied across the country.

“It won’t be a major surprise if five to six lakh names are deleted from the final electoral roll after publication on November 9. Once the entire exercise is completed in Phase‑III, the ECI will filter out duplicate voters in two different states. Not only duplicates having voter IDs in Andhra Pradesh, but also from Karnataka will lose their votes here. This five to six lakh figure is a very conservative estimate,” official sources said.

The DSE software is an AI‑powered system deployed by the ECI to clean up voter lists by identifying and eliminating duplicate registrations. Integrated into the ECI’s core electoral roll management infrastructure (ERONET and ECINET), it acts as an algorithmic filter to detect individuals enrolled in multiple locations. The software scans the centralised voter database for matching demographic details, targeting highly similar combinations of names, ages, genders, relation types, relation names and addresses. When multiple profiles share these indicators, the platform generates a ‘DSE Report’, flagging them as suspected duplicates.

“Voters will be given a choice and one EPIC detail will be removed from the roll. If this is found after the SIR is completed and DSE detects two votes, the voter will get a notice and may face punishment of up to one year in jail, besides penalty,” officials explained.

With permanently shifted voters numbering 45,18,961 (61.57 per cent) out of the total 73,39,234 deleted voters (ASDD), officials argue that since the SIR was undertaken in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana simultaneously, most voters preferred their native villages and towns, resulting in maximum deletions under the ‘shifted’ category. “Had the SIR been conducted in the two Telugu states at different phases, these many deletions would not have occurred,” an official explained.

CEO clarifies EPIC not mandatory for Form‑18

Chief Electoral Officer C. Sudarshan Reddy clarified that providing EPIC details while applying through Form‑18 for registering as a voter in the upcoming Legislative Council polls was not mandatory. However, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will verify the ‘ordinary residence status’ of voters for graduate constituencies if applications are received without EPIC details.

As part of preparations for the Hyderabad‑Mahbubnagar‑Rangareddy (HMR) and Warangal‑Khammam‑Nalgonda (WKN) graduate constituencies, the CEO directed District Election Officers (DEOs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to verify both the ordinary residence status of applicants and possession of the required educational qualification as on October 31, 2023.

As documentary proof of educational qualification, a copy of the degree attested by a gazetted officer can be considered. “In case applications are received online without attestation of the degree, diploma certificate or mark‑sheet by a gazetted officer, the applicant concerned must attend, along with the original certificate, before the designated officer at his office for verification,” the CEO instructed officials through a memo on Saturday.

Further, the CEO noted that where EPIC details are provided in Form‑18 and the address in EPIC matches the address in Form‑18, such applications can be accepted without verification of ordinary residence status. Where the addresses differ, the applications shall be decided by the ERO concerned, keeping in view the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.