Even as Maharashtra’s draft electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) were published on Monday, voters complained of difficulties accessing and searching the rolls online, prompting the Election Commission to say that the name-search facility was still being worked on and would be available by Tuesday evening or Wednesday. The draft rolls show that 2.07 crore of the 9.78 crore electors on the pre-SIR rolls could not be included at this stage.

Of the 9,78,54,049 electors on the rolls before the SIR exercise, 7,71,65,562, or 78.86 per cent, have been included in the draft. The remaining 2,06,88,487 electors, or 21.14 per cent, were not included because their Enumeration Forms could not be collected.

The Election Commission, however, cautioned that the 2.07 crore figure should not be viewed as the final number of voters who will be deleted from the electoral rolls. The draft publication has been followed by a month-long claims and objections period, during which eligible electors whose names are missing can apply for inclusion.

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The excluded electors have been categorised as Absent/Not Found, Permanently Shifted, Dead, Already Enrolled Elsewhere/Duplicate and Others. Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam said the numbers could change during the claims and objections process.

The largest concentration of electors not included in the draft is in Maharashtra’s major urban districts. Pune has the highest number at 28,66,481, followed by Thane at 28,59,377 and Mumbai Suburban at 26,58,202. Together, the three districts account for 83,84,060 cases, or around 40.5 per cent of the statewide total.

Nagpur has 14,43,267 electors not included in the draft, while Nashik has 10,27,792 and Mumbai City 9,50,720. Palghar accounts for 6,68,709, Aurangabad 6,07,660 and Raigad 5,84,118.

The publication of the draft rolls was itself accompanied by confusion among voters trying to check their names. Although the electoral-roll PDFs were uploaded on the Election Commission’s main portal by Monday evening, they did not carry photographs and voters could not directly search the draft using their voter ID or EPIC number. They instead had to download the relevant PDF and manually search for their names.

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Several voters also reported confusion over changes in polling-station part numbers between the existing electoral roll and the SIR draft. The changes led some voters to fear that their names had been omitted.

Responding to complaints about the search facility, Chockalingam said it was still being developed and would be available “by tomorrow evening or Wednesday”. An ECI official also said the facility would be made available by Tuesday and that the draft rolls would be uploaded by district administrations.

According to the state election machinery, the 2,06,88,487 electors not included in the draft comprise 75.52 lakh classified as Absent/Not Found, 76.80 lakh as Permanently Shifted, 34.81 lakh as Dead, 17.63 lakh as Already Enrolled Elsewhere/Duplicate and 2.23 lakh under Others.

Chockalingam said these classifications do not automatically mean that an elector will be deleted from the final roll. In cases involving duplicate registrations, for instance, deletion at one location would not necessarily mean removal from the electoral roll altogether if the person remains validly registered elsewhere.

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For those classified as Absent/Not Found, officials could not establish what had happened to the elector. They may have shifted elsewhere or remained absent for other reasons. In the case of those marked Permanently Shifted, officials had information indicating that the elector had moved from the registered address.

The election authorities have also published lists of electors whose names were included in the rolls before the revision but could not be included in the draft, along with the reasons under the Absent/Shifted/Dead/Duplicate/Other (ASDDO) categories. The lists are available on the websites of the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer and respective District Election Officers and are also being displayed on notice boards at important government offices.

The claims and objections period will run from August 31 to September 30. Eligible electors whose names are missing from the draft can apply for inclusion through Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration. New electors who have attained or will attain the age of 18 years on or before October 1, 2026, can also apply.

An elector can use Form 7 to object to the inclusion of a particular name, while Form 8 can be used to seek corrections to details such as name, address, age and gender.

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The claims, objections and notices will be handled by 288 Electoral Registration Officers, one for each Assembly constituency, and more than 7,000 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers. The process at their respective levels is scheduled to continue until October 29, while the final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on November 4.

The Election Commission has also provided for notices to electors who remain unmapped with the 2002-2004 electoral rolls, as well as those for whom mapping has been completed but logical discrepancies have been identified. Such electors can submit prescribed or other valid documents, which will be verified before a decision is taken.

During the claims and objections period, Assembly constituency-wise lists of claims and objections received will be prepared every week and made available on the websites of the respective District Election Officers and the Maharashtra CEO.

The SIR exercise has also led to a marginal rationalisation of polling stations. Their number has come down from 1,00,253 to 1,00,216, with 394 new stations added and 431 deleted. The locations of 1,403 polling stations have also been changed, including stations in Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane and Palghar that were earlier operating from temporary structures and have now been shifted to permanent premises within the same polling-station area.

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The draft electoral rolls are available to citizens on the Election Commission’s Voter Service Portal, the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer’s website and the websites of the respective District Election Officers.