Forms for at least 2.08 crore of Maharashtra’s 9.79 crore voters, more than one in five, could not be collected during the house-to-house enumeration exercise under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which ended at 5 pm on Monday. The figure is from the 10 am bulletin on the final day, and is likely to change. Nearly half of these are from Thane, Mumbai and Pune.

Names for which forms remained uncollected will not feature in the draft electoral roll to be published on August 24.

That is not a permanent deletion. The August 24 list is a draft, and voters left out of it have a month, until September 23, to seek inclusion or correction. The election authorities will examine those claims and objections before publishing the final roll on October 27.

“This is not permanent deletion from the electoral roll. The August 24 list is a draft, and being left out of it does not mean that an eligible voter has permanently lost the right to vote. Voters should check the draft roll on August 24. Those whose names are missing will have one month, from August 24 to September 23, to seek inclusion or correction. Eligible persons can apply for inclusion as voters during this period,” said an official.

An enumeration form is used to verify the details of an existing voter. During the SIR, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited households with pre-filled forms and collected them for verification and digitisation. A form recorded as uncollected does not by itself mean the voter is dead, has shifted, is a duplicate or is ineligible. The voter may have moved, may not have been at the address when the BLO called, or may not have been traced there.

Where the forms went uncollected

The data shows 2,07,93,916 forms, or 21.25 per cent of the state’s electorate, in the uncollected category. Across Maharashtra, 7,69,52,262 forms, or 78.64 per cent, had been digitised as of the 10 am bulletin.

The problem is concentrated in the largest urban districts. Forms for 94.47 lakh voters in Thane, Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban and Pune account for 45.4 per cent of all uncollected forms, although the four districts hold only about 27.5 per cent of the state’s electorate.

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Thane has the highest share, with forms for 28.88 lakh of its 74.51 lakh voters, or 38.77 per cent, uncollected. Mumbai City has 9.60 lakh, or 37.57 per cent, Mumbai Suburban 26.99 lakh, or 34.48 per cent, and Pune 28.99 lakh, or 31.92 per cent.

The numbers are also high in Nagpur, Palghar and Raigad. Nagpur has 14.06 lakh uncollected forms, or 30.32 per cent, Palghar 6.87 lakh, or 28.88 per cent, and Raigad 5.91 lakh, or 23.33 per cent. Together, these seven districts account for about 1.21 crore, or 58.3 per cent, of all uncollected forms, while holding about 37 per cent of the electorate.

Rural districts show the opposite pattern. In Hingoli, forms for 8.82 per cent of voters remain uncollected. The figure is 9.10 per cent in Buldhana, 9.93 per cent in Ratnagiri and 10.62 per cent in Latur. In Thane, forms for nearly four in 10 voters could not be collected. In Hingoli, it was fewer than one in 10.

Officials have previously cited migration and changes of address among the reasons for the high urban numbers of uncollected forms. In Mumbai, Thane and Pune, frequent movement between residences can make it difficult for BLOs to find electors at the addresses recorded in the roll, officials said. The uncollected figure has risen from 1.80 crore on August 12 to 2.08 crore on Monday, an increase of about 27.3 lakh in five days.

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The enumeration exercise ended at 5 pm Monday, an official said. The 10 am bulletin showed around 1.08 lakh electors outside both the digitised and uncollected categories, with their final status yet to be reflected. On that basis, 2.08 crore is the minimum number of electors likely to be left out of the August 24 draft.

The SIR began on June 30, and the house-to-house enumeration deadline was extended twice before it ended on Monday. The next date that matters for voters is August 24.