Pune: An NCP (SP) delegation, led by its state president Shashikant Shinde, will meet Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer on Monday to demand an extension to the SIR exercise and raise concerns over the large number of uncollected enumeration forms, including those under the absent-shifted-dead-duplicate or others (ASDDO) category and the door-to-door verification drive, MLA Rohit Pawar said on Sunday.Pawar on social media had questioned why Maharashtra’s SIR was being rushed when no election was imminent. Referring to West Bengal, he alleged that excluding 12% (91 lakh) voters from the rolls had “strangled” democracy and questioned whether a similar “Bengal pattern” was being attempted in Maharashtra.He demanded an immediate extension of the deadline for submitting forms and said the issue would be raised in Monday’s meeting. “We are going to demand one and ensure that they have answers for these uncollected forms,’’ he told TOI.A BLO said that they were at the centres on both days but there was not much of a response for the ASDDO list. An activist said that there are voters with multiple voter IDs. “How can they finish work by Monday? ’’ a senior citizen who is yet to submit her form said.Election officials on Sunday told TOI that they have no information yet on any extension. “The ECI has not issued any notification. We are not sure if they will give one,‘’ one of them said.He added that teachers who are working as BLOs want to get back to classes, so the extension is highly unlikely as post-draft roll publication, names can be added by filling up Form 6.
