ECI publishes Odisha draft electoral roll; over 20 lakh names omitted

Bhubaneswar, July 5 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday announced the publication of the draft electoral roll for Odisha, with over 20 lakh electors omitted from the voters' list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted through door-to-door verification between May 30 and June 28. 

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha, R.S. Gopalan said, "As part of the ongoing SIR exercise, today the draft electoral roll has been published. A copy of it has been given to each political party."

The CEO informed that when the electoral roll was frozen on May 20, Odisha had 3,33,99,591 registered voters. In the draft electoral roll published on Sunday, around 20 lakh voters have been omitted, bringing the total number of electors down to 3,13,87,034, including 1.60 crore male, 1.53 crore female and 2,775 transgender voters.

Elaborating on the details of electors omitted from the draft electoral roll, Gopalan said 8.32 lakh names were removed as the voters were deceased, 10.07 lakh because they had shifted or could not be traced, 1.58 lakh due to duplicate or multiple enrolments, and around 14,000 because they had not yet submitted their enumeration forms. In total, 20.14 lakh names were omitted from the draft electoral roll.

The CEO, Odisha, also said that voters who have any grievances regarding the exclusion of their names from the draft electoral roll can file claims, objections or complaints during the next 30 days, beginning on Sunday and continuing until August 4.

Similarly, the process for disposal of claims and objections, along with the notice period, will continue from July 5 to September 2, while the final electoral roll will be published on September 6, 2026.

Praising the efforts of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and other officials, the CEO said the successful completion of this phase was the result of the coordinated efforts of 31 District Electoral Officers (DEOs), 147 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 994 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), 4,540 BLO supervisors and BLOs deployed across 45,250 polling booths. He added that all seven recognised political parties also actively participated in the exercise through 84,594 Booth Level Agents (BLAs).

Gopalan also advised voters to verify whether their names appear in the electoral roll through the BLOs, voters.eci.gov.in, the ECINET mobile app and ceoodisha.nic.in. If anyone's name is not on the list, the person is required to fill the prescribed forms and submit them along with the Declaration Form (Annexure-IV) and other required documents.