Gandhinagar, Feb 17 (NationPress) The Election Commission has unveiled the final electoral roll for Gujarat after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), revealing a total of 4.40 crore voters, with a significant addition of 5.6 lakh voters since the draft electoral list was issued.

The SIR began statewide on October 27 of the previous year.

The process lasted more than three and a half months, involving the distribution and collection of enumeration forms, verification of entries, and addressing claims and objections.

Between December 19 and January 30, objections and requests for adding or removing voter names were accepted.

These were scrutinized and resolved by February 10 before the final electoral roll was published.

According to Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer Hareet Shukla, the SIR process was accomplished within the designated timeline through collaborative efforts at various administrative levels.

A total of 34 District Election Officers, 182 Electoral Registration Officers, 855 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, and 50,963 Booth Level Officers, along with volunteers, participated in the SIR initiative.

The final electoral roll now includes 4,40,30,725 voters, indicating a net increase of 5,60,566 voters since the draft electoral roll stage.

Prior to drafting, Gujarat had 5,08,43,436 registered voters.

The draft electoral roll, after field verification, contained 4,34,70,109 names.

After reviewing claims and objections from the SIR, the final voter count increased to 4,40,30,725, which is a 1.29 percent rise from the draft electoral roll.

Booth Level Officers conducted door-to-door surveys to gather and distribute enumeration forms, which were subsequently digitized.

During the verification process, deceased voters, individuals who moved permanently, and those registered at multiple addresses were identified.

Meetings between Booth Level Officers and booth-level agents from political parties were also organized to discuss instances where enumeration forms were not returned.

Updated photographs collected during the SIR will be added to the upcoming electoral roll.

District data indicated that Ahmedabad saw the highest influx of voters with 1,53,234 additions, followed by Surat with 1,01,578 and Rajkot with 53,517.

Vadodara and Bhavnagar added 47,070 and 40,074 voters respectively, whereas Dang (4,423), Narmada (5,797), and Tapi (6,269) had the fewest additions of voters.

Regarding deletions, Surat recorded 85,734 removals, followed by Ahmedabad with 47,627 and Surendranagar with 21,415 deletions.

Banaskantha saw 21,710 deletions, and Rajkot had 20,096. Notably, Surendranagar experienced a slight net decline of 99 voters.