The Election Commission of India ordered chief electoral officers in 20 states and union territories where the special intensive revision has concluded to run a dedicated drive enrolling voters left off published rolls, instructing booth-level officers to use the standard Form 6 without the controversial ancestry declaration added to online applications in July, according to commission correspondence reported by The Indian Express.
What booth officers must do
Officers will compare pre-revision rolls with final lists, identify names that disappeared, conduct house-to-house verification, and facilitate fresh enrolment where eligibility is confirmed. The process mirrors routes Goa officials used after 97 voters were cleared locally yet remained deleted in ECINet.
Opposition parties say more than 13 crore names vanished nationwide during the exercise; the commission maintains the purge removed duplicates, deceased voters, and ineligible entries. The re-enrollment drive is the administrative bridge between those competing claims.
Form 6 dispute
A separate Supreme Court hearing on Monday examined whether a modified online Form 6—asking applicants about parents’ presence on earlier rolls—was authorised. Chief Justice Surya Kant said the court had not approved such changes. The commission’s September 26 statement reverted to statutory forms for non-SIR periods, the backdrop for this week’s field instructions.
On-the-ground stakes
For first-time voters and families caught in data mismatches, the drive is the practical path back onto rolls before state elections. Civil society groups in Delhi and Bihar plan to monitor whether booth officers receive updated training and whether ECINet can reverse erroneous deletions without manual workarounds.
What to watch
Success will be measured in published supplementary lists, not press releases. If the drive clears tens of thousands of wrongful deletions, tension may ease; if bureaucratic bottlenecks persist, litigation and street protests will continue regardless of court timelines.
Opposition monitoring
Congress and regional parties plan booth-level volunteers to escort eligible voters to enrolment camps, citing past instances where elderly residents lacked documents after deletions. The commission asked parties to channel complaints through Form 6 rather than street blockades, a request tested in Delhi after weekend detentions.
Electoral roll software vendors face pressure to ship hotfixes allowing EROs to reverse deletions without re-entering entire household records. IT teams said patches are testing in Goa before national rollout.
Timeline risk
State elections scheduled before year-end leave little margin for supplementary rolls to print. CEOs in Bihar and Maharashtra said they would publish addendum lists weekly rather than waiting for a single bulk release.
Documentation burden
Voters reapplying through Form 6 must still produce proof of residence and age; booth officers cannot waive those rules even during the special drive. Civil society groups are distributing checklists in Hindi and regional languages so applicants arrive with the correct annexures, reducing repeat visits that clog already stretched field staff.