Ranchi: Missing names in the SIR draft electoral roll sent anxious voters from across the city rushing to booths on Sunday, triggering confusion as residents sought deletions, corrections, transfers and fresh inclusions. Booth level officers said most discrepancies involved deletions, new inclusions, shifting of names, corrections and attempts to bring family members listed at different booths under one polling station.At a booth in Lalpur, Vijay Kumar arrived with his daughter after discovering that both their names were missing from the draft roll while his son’s name remained. “All of us filled our enumeration forms properly. My son’s and daughter’s name were mapped with my name. My daughter’s and mine have been deleted,” he said. The father-daughter duo came to submit the required form again.Govt employees, labourers and people from other professions reported similar problems. A 44-year-old state govt employee, who said she had been a voter since 2003 and had filled the enumeration form, found her name missing because of a spelling discrepancy. “My name is ‘Rashmi’. But the old list and the 2026 list that existed before the SIR process began showed ‘Rashim’. Hence, my name got deleted in the draft roll. It has always been their (Election Commission’s) fault,” she said. She is now preparing to file Form 6.At Tharpakhna’s Kali Charan Lane, 45-year-old Anil Kumar Verma said his family had lived there for “at least 110 years” and that his name appeared on the 2003 roll. “My brother’s, mother’s, sister-in-law’s, everybody else have their names but my name was deleted. I have been voting for long,” he said, adding that he had not received an enumeration form during the enumeration phase and was now filling up Form 6.Anjali Dey visited a booth to check whether her mother-in-law’s name was included after she failed to find it herself.Dulur Ekka, a voter from Anandpur who visited a school in Kokar, said three members of his family had names listed at different booths. “Three of us have names in different booths and now we have to get it corrected,” he said.Chief electoral officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar said a polling area is a defined geographical area under one BLO, who is responsible for enrolling electors there. Voters missing from the draft roll must file Form 6, while those listed at another booth or seeking family consolidation must file Form 8 during the ongoing claims and objections phase of SIR.At Balika Siksha Bhawan, BLO Subhas Chandra Gorai said the process was proceeding smoothly, with transfers being handled through Form 8 and new voters through Form 6. Though Sunday was World Tribal Day, many BLOs, mostly women, were on duty wearing traditional saris before joining in festivities.Kumar said a polling area should not have more than 1,200 electors, while polling stations should be within 2 km of the polling area to ensure voters do not have to travel beyond that distance to cast their votes.
