Odisha Concludes Electoral Roll Revision With Over 20 Lakh Deletions

The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Odisha has officially concluded with the publication of the final voter list, recording the deletion of more than 20 lakh electors following exhaustive door-to-door verification and notice-serving phases.

The election commission explicitly mandates active involvement of political party booth level agents across polling booths during special intensive revisions to identify discrepancies early. The commission historically conducted intensive revisions every few years until two thousand four before reviving the practice.

Odisha Chief Electoral Officer R.S. Gopalan announced on Monday that the final statewide electorate stands at 3,16,32,754 electors. The extensive administrative cleanup exercise began on May 30, 2026, when the state's baseline electoral roll registered 3,13,99,000 voters before subsequent door-to-door enumeration, unmapped mapping, and discrepancy checks reshaped the database.

During the preliminary door-to-door verification conducted by booth-level officers between May 30 and June 28, collection forms reached 93.97 percent of the total electorate. However, forms for 20,12,557 electors were uncollected or unreturned, leading to their removal from the draft roll published on July 5, which stood at 3,13,87,034 voters.

Chief Electoral Officer Gopalan outlined the primary drivers behind the initial wave of exclusions. The data accounts for 8,32,000 deceased individuals, 8,08,000 voters who had permanently relocated from their constituencies, two lakh absent electors, and 1,58,000 duplicate entries involving individuals registered across multiple booths.

Following the draft roll publication, election authorities launched a massive notice-serving campaign targeting records with structural ambiguities. Authorities could not map approximately 13 lakh voters against historical 2002 rolls, while another 45,37,000 entries contained logical errors.

In total, formal notices reached 58,36,392 electors for personal hearings. Following rigorous scrutiny by booth-level officials and hearings on claims and objections, 24,000 unmapped or discrepant voters were formally ruled ineligible and removed from the active rolls.

During the claims and objections window, the office received about 57,000 Form 7 applications seeking deletions. Verification confirmed 20,000 of these objections, resulting in further removals alongside other administrative corrections, bringing total post-draft deletions to 44,777.

The administrative scrutiny also identified non-Indian citizens on the registry. Data released by the Chief Electoral Officer documented foreign national removals comprising around 200 Tibetan nationals who had not acquired Indian citizenship, over 100 Nepalese citizens, more than 100 other foreign nationals, three individuals from the Philippines, and one Sri Lankan national.

Despite the substantial deletions, active inclusions during the revision window prevented an overall net decline in the state's voter population. Authorities processed 2,74,000 Form 6 applications for new voter registrations and 16,000 Form 8 modification applications, successfully adding 2,90,000 eligible citizens to the rolls.

The final published electoral list records 3,16,32,754 total electors, comprising 1,61,30,000 males, 1,54,99,000 females, and 2,774 third-gender voters. Total deletions across all phases reached approximately 20.56 lakh electors, representing roughly 6 percent of the state's initial voter base.

Chief Electoral Officer Gopalan noted that the formal intensive revision exercise is now completely finished, with continuous electoral roll updating immediately restored across all districts. Citizens seeking name additions, address corrections, or list deletions can now submit applications online or through local booth-level officers using Forms 6, 7, and 8.

Recognized political parties receive two free copies of draft electoral rolls and appoint Booth Level Agents who are authorized to verify rolls and submit claim or objection forms. Objections must be publicly listed, verified on the ground by Booth Level Officers, and heard by the Electoral Registration Officer following mandatory advance notice.