Chandigarh: Punjab’s electorate has shrunk by 13.60 lakh voters, or 6.34%, following the completion of the special intensive revision (SIR), according to the final electoral rolls published on Monday.The state’s total number of registered voters fell to 2,01,00,727 across all 117 assembly constituencies, down from 2,14,61,043 on June 9, before the exercise. The final roll comprises 1,03,76,026 men, 97,24,195 women and 506 third-gender electors.The draft rolls published on Aug 13 had listed 1,93,94,435 electors, following the exclusion of more than 20,66,608 names from the pre-SIR electorate. Deletions included 9.44 lakh (4.40%) permanently shifted voters, 5.74 lakh (2.68%) deceased, 4.12 lakh (1.92%) untraceable and 1.19 lakh (0.56%) duplicate entries.Punjab chief electoral officer (CEO) Anindita Mitra said the final rolls reflect a legitimate cleanup rather than a loss of eligible voters. She said during the exercise, 7,97,263 new electors were enrolled, including 2,93,049 first-time voters aged 18 and 19, marking a net addition of 7.06 lakh over the draft baseline of nearly 1.94 crore voters.Mitra explained that 86,038 of 35.49 lakh electors issued notices were declared ineligible after verification, with documentary proof required for every exclusion. Notice recipients included 12.8 lakh unmapped electors cross-referenced against the last 2003 SIR data.Mitra said, “The nearly 1.94 crore voters in the draft electoral roll were our reference point, and not 2.14 crore. So, our electorate base has increased by 3.5%. Claims and objections were invited from among the 1.94 crore voters only.”The revision began on June 25. The draft rolls were published on Aug 13, followed by a claims and objections period that ended on Sept 12. The notice and disposal phase continued until Oct 8, with hearings conducted by electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers.Mitra said copies of the final rolls, along with soft copies, had been handed over to representatives of recognised political parties.The representatives praised Mitra for conducting the exercise in a transparent and efficient manner. Advocate Ferry Sofat, representing the Aam Aadmi Party, said, “Like there were issues in West Bengal, no party in Punjab is saying that there has been any wrongdoing. All were satisfied with it.”Hardip Singh Kingra, who was deputed by the Congress, said, “Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done. The process was carried out in a very transparent manner. At every stage, political parties were informed. I raised many queries on WhatsApp and those were promptly replied to. She was very active.”Punjab BJP legal cell convener N K Verma said, “No political party had any objection to the deletion of ineligible, duplicate or shifted voters.”Advocate Arshdeep Singh Kler, who was deputed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), said, “The CEO has carried out the process in a transparent manner. We welcome it. There were many doubts about SIR in Punjab. We discussed our points, and she made improvements wherever necessary.”Mitra said, “It is not a shrunken voter list but a justified one, where we have increased the number of voters by nearly 8 lakh. A dead person cannot vote, nor can someone who has permanently shifted or has duplicate votes. Political parties, their booth-level agents and people were given the lists one month ago. Had there been eligible voters among those excluded, they would have got their forms filled.”“In death cases, we have taken a death certificate; in cases of duplicate votes, we have mentioned the EPIC number of the second vote; and for those who have obtained a passport of another country, a copy of the passport has been attached,” she said.Mitra said the number of polling stations had been increased from 24,453 to 25,332 to improve voter accessibility. The final electoral roll for service voters, with Oct 1 as the qualifying date, was also published on Monday.Mitra said eligible persons whose names were missing from the final rolls, as well as new electors, could apply for enrolment through Form 6 online via the ECINET app or offline through their booth-level officers.Gender ratio improvesThe gender ratio in Punjab’s electoral rolls increased from 906 female electors per 1,000 male electors in the draft rolls published on Aug 13 to 937 in the final electoral roll published on Oct 12 — an improvement of 31 points following the SIR.VOTER DATAMale | 1,03,76,026Female | 97,24,195Third-gender | 506Pre-SIR electorate: 2,14,61,043Draft-roll electorate | 1,93,94,435
