Last-minute form submissions, missing BLO details, conflicting info leave Delhi voters in limbo

A day after the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi ended, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were struggling to verify and dispose of enumeration forms submitted online in the final hours, while voters reported that their BLO had either been unable to collect their forms or had been advised to enrol as new voters during the claims and objections phase, despite having voter card.At the end of the verification and mapping phase on August 17, only 67.2% or 97.5 lakh enumeration forms have been digitised and verified by BLOs. Of these, over a third - or 33 lakh - may need to submit documents to show eligibility. The rest, 47.6 lakh of the 1.45 crore voters are placed in Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, Others (ASDDO), the list of which is likely to be published later this week.A majority of these are marked as “shifted”, while more than 10 lakh have been identified as duplicate entries. Another two to three lakh have been placed in the “others” category, The Hindu has learnt.Voters told to enrol afreshA 21-year-old voter from Malviya Nagar constituency, Raj, who did not wish to share his full name, said his BLO told him on August 10 that deadline has passed and did not collect his and his 36-year-old mother’s enumeration forms. On August 7, the deadline was extended to August 17 from August 8.“When I called my BLO, he said he could not accept the forms as the deadline had passed. I did not argue with him, but simply told him that if it could still be uploaded, he should come and collect it,” he said.The BLO did not visit them to collect the forms until Monday. When contacted by The Hindu, the BLO said he might have missed, citing “mounting stress.”Their forms are currently among the 47.6 lakh voters marked as “uncollectable”. Their names will not appear in the draft roll. They will have to submit Form 6 and a declaration during the claims and objections phase to enrol themselves as voters again.Mr. Raj said this would mean additional effort despite them filling their enumeration forms, mapping as progeny to their grandparents.The BLO said he had visited the household before the second extension but the forms had not been filled at the time. “I marked them as ‘absent’. When they contacted me, I did not know that the category could be changed. Later, I missed it entirely,” he said.Asked whether there could be more such cases, he said it was possible. Before marking absent, a BLO is required to pay three visits. “It is not possible to visit three times, even though it might sound doable,” he said.The complaints come even as election officials have maintained that the verification and mapping exercise had proceeded smoothly and that entries placed in the ASDDO categories had been verified.The other six members of Raj’s family, who were assigned a different BLO, had their forms collected on time. “I am out all day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., so I could not pay a lot of attention to this,” Mr. Raj said.In another constituency in South Delhi, 23-year-old Shahnoor Mansoori said he was advised to allow his name to be deleted during the enumeration phase and enrol afresh later.Mr. Mansoori, who had registered as a new voter online about a year ago and was assigned a part number based on his address, said he was unable to submit his enumeration form online because the system showed a mismatch between his Aadhaar and EPIC name. The portal directed him to contact his BLO to submit the form offline.“When I contacted the BLO, he said my enumeration form was not with him and would be with another BLO, but he never shared his contact,” he said.Mr. Mansoori said he then went to the nearest polling station to enquire about the form and the BLO’s contact details. He was instead told to fill a new form during the claims and objections phase. He said he was unaware that he would have to go through the process of enrolling as a new voter again, this time along with a declaration. “If this is such an important exercise, they should have been a little less casual,” he said.Last-minute online formsAs of Tuesday morning, more than 1,500 enumeration forms submitted online were still awaiting verification, as per sources. BLOs said these forms had been submitted in the final few hours before the deadline on Monday night. South Delhi had the highest number, followed by East Delhi, both reporting more than 300 such forms each.A BLO in East Delhi said senior officials had instructed them on Tuesday morning to dispose of the remaining forms. However, the option was no longer available on the tablet.“No changes could be made as tabs were disabled,” he said.A South Delhi BLO raised another concern over the verification of online submissions. “For every form submitted online, we need to go and physically verify that the elector lives there. But how are we supposed to ensure this at night?” he said.He added that a few electors who had been away from home had returned and approached him for forms a day before the deadline. As he could not deliver the physical forms to them, he advised them to submit the forms online or enrol fresh.ASDDO list yet to be publishedWhile physical copies of the ASDDO list are being shared with the BLAs of political parties, the list has not yet been published online. Voter Adhikar Manch, a citizens’ group, pointed out that in other States, including Karnataka, ASDDO lists were made public during the enumeration phase, allowing at least three lakh voters to rectify.Asked why the list was not being published earlier, the official said there was no particular reason.