Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami on Thursday ordered the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (OCEO) to scrap all 33.48 lakh fresh names included in the draft voters’ list. The decision has come after a day-long review of the draft voters’ list, which had a lot of errors.

Mr Gopalaswami also directed the OCEO to cross-check the authenticity of each voter by reconducting the extensive door-to-door survey. He has set February 7 as the deadline to publish the draft and March 10 to finalise it.

“I am concerned that a large number of names were added, but no deletions were made. The people of Karnataka seem to have taken a special drug that nobody has died... We have decided to scrap all the 33.48 lakh additions made in the draft voters’ list,” he told reporters in Bangalore.

With this, all officials — right from the Chief Electoral Officer to booth-level officers (mostly  municipality employees) on election duty — will be back on streets from Thursday, conducting door-to-door survey for the next 20 days.

This also means additional expenditure. For example, in Bangalore alone, over 2,000 officials will be on the job, and it needs a minimum of Rs 1 lakh a day. The total amount, if the entire State is taken into account, runs into many crores, official sources said.

Mr Gopalaswami said: “The process (to verify the authenticity of freshly-included voters) will go on till we prepare a clean and error-free electoral roll.”

He said the OCEO had been directed to publish the draft electoral rolls on February 7, after which 15 days’ time would be given to political parties or individuals to file objections. The final list would be published on March 10, he added.

Taking note of the outcry against the defective voters’ list, the CEC said he would fix the responsibility for preparing an error-free list on parties. “Political parties will be given two separate lists on February 7 for final deletions and additions. It will be their responsibility to ensure that the final list is error-free,” he said.

The Commissioner, he said, would also furnish a separate list of deletions made to the parties.
Inefficient officials

Mr Gopalaswami said he has furnished a list of inefficient officials to the State government, against whom disciplinary action has been recommended.

But he did not reveal the names of those who erred in preparing a clean voters’ list. “Some may be suspended and some may be transferred also,” he said.

Electoral moves

*All names added to voters’ list from Nov 2 to 17 will be deleted
*33.48 lakh names deleted and 9.27 lakh names added
*Draft electoral rolls to be published on February 7
*Photo identity cards will be issued from February 7
*CEC not aware of election dates for State Assembly