'Many Added': Goa Electoral Officer On 97 Electors Not Being Included In Rolls

Following an uproar over reports that the names of 97 eligible electors were not included in the final voter list published in February after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Chief Electoral Officer of the state has said "many" of them have been added since then. The Indian Express had reported that voters had been flagged for "logical discrepancies" in Goa and given an opportunity to submit documents and objections to be included in the electoral rolls. Of these, 649 electors had come forward and their cases were examined by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs.After going through the cases, the officials found 97 eligible for inclusion. According to the report, the Goa Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) sent eight communications between February 11 and 17 seeking a facility to reverse the decision and allow the inclusion of the names. This did not happen, however, and the final electoral roll published on February 21 did not have the 97 voters. READ | "He Must Quit": Rahul Gandhi Calls Gyanesh Kumar "Deshdrohi", BJP ReactsOn Thursday, the CEO's office said several names have been included. "The 97 cases not included in the Final Roll published in February 2026 were separately processed through house-to-house visits by BLOs (Booth Level Officers) for completion of Form 6. Many have since been enrolled, while the remaining cases are being processed. It is reiterated that no eligible elector will be left behind," it said. The non-inclusion of the voters raised questions about the centralisation of voter lists, which was also brought up by Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. READ | Opposition To Push For Impeachment Of Poll Body Chief Again: SourcesGoa Congress working president Sunil Kawthankar said the BJP was trying to win elections through SIR because it knew it would not get another term in the state. He called for the process to be rolled back. "Deletion of names of valid voters amounts to sabotage. The Election Commission of India has become an arm of the BJP, which they are using to win polls. The BJP is rattled by the support that the Congress has been receiving across the country. That is why they are trying to win elections through these kinds of tactics," he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.The BJP has dismissed the Opposition's claims as a smear campaign and said the Congress has been frustrated because people are not voting for the party and it has not been able to win elections. One of the key issues raised by the Opposition is that the names of over 13 crore voters have been deleted so far as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in states and Union Territories, which is nearly 14% of India's total electorate. The percentage of deletions has been highest in Delhi, with 32.8%, or nearly one in three pre-SIR electors, being excluded from the draft list.Delhi's figure is followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu at 29.6%, Telangana at 21.7%, Maharashtra at 21.1%, Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 20.6%, and Karnataka at 19.5%.