Vijayawada: Over 44 lakh voters in Andhra Pradesh, which amounts to 10.8% of the state’s electorate, have been excluded from the draft electoral roll, which was released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday, formally launching the Special Summary Revision (SSR) exercise ahead of future elections.The draft list includes 3.71 crore electors, while 44.89 lakh names have been placed in the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) categories, pending due process.Before the revision, AP had 4.16 crore registered voters, indicating that nearly 89.22% of electors completed the enumeration exercise conducted between June 15 and July 24.Chief electoral officer (CEO) Vivek Yadav said 3.71 crore electors submitted the enumeration forms during the exercise. Of the 44.89 lakh names excluded from the draft roll, 15.22 lakh were identified as deceased, 22.99 lakh were found to have permanently shifted, remained absent, or failed to submit the enumeration forms, while 7.37 lakh were identified as duplicate enrolments across multiple locations.Yadav clarified that genuine electors who were unable to complete the process will still have an opportunity to secure inclusion in the electoral roll during the claims and objections period by submitting Form-6 along with the prescribed declaration. “A meeting would be held with representatives of political parties to explain the revision process. District collectors have already handed over soft copies of the draft electoral rolls to political parties,” he said.The CEO said members of the public and political party representatives can inspect and verify the draft photo electoral rolls at the offices of electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs), and booth level officers (BLOs) across all assembly constituencies. They can also access the rolls through the chief electoral officer, Andhra Pradesh website, the ECINET mobile application, and the ECI’s voter services portal.District-wise data showed that Kurnool retained the highest number of electors in the draft roll at 18.12 lakh, followed by Ananthapuram (17.90 lakh), Visakhapatnam (17.82 lakh), Nellore (16.84 lakh), East Godavari (16.65 lakh), and YSR Kadapa (16.51 lakh).At the other end of the spectrum, Polavaram recorded the smallest electorate with 2.39 lakh voters, followed by Parvathipuram Manyam (7.15 lakh), and Markapuram (8.23 lakh). Nellore reported the highest number of electors shifted to the ASDD list at 2.91 lakh, followed by Tirupati (2.88 lakh), Kurnool (2.74 lakh), Ananthapuram (2.48 lakh), YSR Kadapa (2.45 lakh), and Guntur (2.38 lakh).“No elector’s name will be deleted without notice, due inquiry and an opportunity to be heard,” Yadav said, adding that electoral registration officers would scrutinise every application and issue notices wherever required before taking a final decision.
