The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has raised serious concerns regarding newly released draft electoral roll in Odisha, alleging that the names more than 20 lakh voters were left off the list during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
After the draft roll was made public on Sunday, BJD Vice President Debi Prasad Mishra expressed grave concern over the massive scale of the deletions.
“The draft electoral roll has been published today as per the schedule of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process,” Mishra noted. “Prior to this release, we formally approached the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha to highlight alarming data showing that over 20 lakh citizens were excluded from the list,” he said.
Giving a detailed breakdown of the alleged discrepancies, the opposition party pointed out major inconsistencies across various districts. The BJD claimed that over 50,000 voters were excluded across 49 Assembly constituencies, while another 46 constituencies saw more than 10,000 exclusions each.
Meanwhile, official records from the Chief Electoral Officer confirmed that roughly 20.14 lakh names have indeed been marked for removal in the draft rolls, pointing to standard factors like duplicates, deaths, or permanent shifts in residence.
As the BJD demands immediate rectifications, CEO RS Gopalan has called on the public to actively participate in the upcoming claims and objections period, which kicked off on Sunday. “Any citizen whose name is missing from the draft voter list can apply for inclusion in the final roll by completing and submitting Form 6,” Gopalan advised.
The final electoral roll for Odisha is scheduled to be published on September 6, following a thorough verification of all claims and objections.
