There has been a decrease in the number of voters in the final list of SIR, but in which states did the voter turnout increase?

News Topical, Digital Desk : Following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission, the number of voters in nine states and union territories has declined. Analysis of the Election Commission data shows that the total voter turnout in these areas has declined from 214.5 million before the SIR to 197.5 million now, representing an overall decrease of 7.9%.

On Saturday, the Election Commission released the final voter lists for Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. With this, the SIR process has been completed in nine of the 12 states and union territories. The process is still ongoing in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 193.3 million voters were registered in the draft voter list, a decrease of 9.9% compared to the list before the SIR. Subsequently, many names were added during the claims and objections process, increasing the number of voters in the final list to 197.5 million. While this is 2.2% more than the draft list, it still remains 7.9% lower than the pre-SIR situation.

This is in line with last year's SIR in Bihar. Bihar also saw a decline of 8.3% in voter turnout during the draft phase, which had declined to 6% by the time the final list was released. 

The maximum number of voters decreased in these states

Voter turnout declined by 16.9% in Andaman and Nicobar, 13.4% in Gujarat, and 11.8% in Chhattisgarh. In contrast, Lakshadweep, Kerala, and Rajasthan saw the lowest declines in voter turnout. Lakshadweep saw a decline of only 0.4%, Kerala 3.2%, and Rajasthan 5.7%.

Not all states experienced uniform changes between the draft and final lists, which impacted their relative rankings. Kerala, which was among the states with the largest reductions in the draft stage, moved up to the top three in the final list. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh and Goa, which were previously relatively low, have now moved up in the list of states with the largest reductions.

How much change in which states?

The largest improvement between the draft and final list was seen in Kerala, where voter numbers increased by 5.9 percent. This was followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which saw a 4.7 percent increase, and Puducherry, which saw a 2.8 percent increase. In contrast, Goa was the only state where the final list was smaller than the draft, with a further 2.5 percent decrease in voters compared to the draft.

State-wise figures show that 53.9 million names have been added to the final voter list in Madhya Pradesh, compared to 53.1 million in the draft list and 57.4 million before the SIR. During claims and objections, 10.85 million names were added and 23.6 million were removed, resulting in an increase of about 8.5 lakh compared to the draft list.

In Rajasthan, SIR has been completed in 199 out of 200 assembly constituencies. The final voter count in these constituencies was 51.5 million, an increase from 50.4 million in the draft list, but still lower than the 54.6 million before the SIR. Jaipur saw a 3.45% increase in voter turnout.

Voter turnout increased in Kerala

The final voter list in Kerala includes 26.9 million voters, compared to 25.4 million in the draft list and 27.8 million before the SIR. Between the draft and final lists, 1.564 million names were added and over 53,000 were deleted, resulting in an increase of nearly 1.51 million.

The final voter list in Chhattisgarh has 18.7 million names, slightly higher than the draft list but significantly lower than the 21.2 million before the SIR. Around 34.3 million names were added and 10.8 million deleted since the draft in the state. Durg district saw a 2.8% increase in the number of voters.

Goa's final voter list has only 1.06 million names, compared to 1.08 million in the draft list and 1.19 million before the SIR. It is the only state where more names were removed than added during the claims and objections process. Around 39,000 names were removed in this phase, while only a little over 12,000 names were added.

In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 2.58 lakh names have been registered in the final electoral roll, compared to 2.46 lakh in the draft list and 3.10 lakh before the SIR. This represents a net increase of approximately 11.6 thousand since the draft. 

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