Bengaluru, 15 October

There is no need for people to panic if their names are missing from the voter list, as the EC will conduct a special drive to include all eligible voters, Bengaluru Urban District Electoral Officer Maheshwar Rao said.

Speaking to the media at the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Head Office regarding the SIR of the voter list, he said, as per the directions of the Election Commission of India, steps are being taken to conduct a special drive to facilitate the inclusion of eligible voter.

Eligible citizens can apply for fresh inclusion of their names by submitting Form 6, he added.

Rao said that the draft voter list contains a total of 56,99,660 voters. Due to names not being traced in the 2002 voter list and other discrepancies, notices had to be issued to 24,06,044 individuals for hearings and most of these hearings have already been completed.

The EC has now directed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to visit households directly and conduct verification instead of conducting hearings.

In Bengaluru Urban District, 2.19 lakh people have submitted Form 6 applications for fresh inclusion of their names in the voter list. Following the disposal and verification of various applications, including Forms 7 and 8, approximately 2 lakh voters are expected to be added.

Consequently, the total number of voters in the City is expected to reach around 59 lakh, he stated.

In Bengaluru Urban District, a total of 5,549 applications have been received under Form 7, of which 2,468 applications have been approved so far. This accounts for 44 per cent of the total applications, he said. 

The draft voter list was published on 24 August and the final voter list will be published on 27 October.